Formula 1: George Russell says Ferrari ‘selfish’ over rule change

Mercedes driver George Russell has accused Ferrari of being “selfish” and “silly” in blocking change to the rules to improve safety at starts.

Last week’s opening race in Australia saw a large deviation in start performance across the grid. The worst incident involved a near-miss when Alpine driver Franco Colapinto narrowly avoided smashing at high speed into the back of the slow-moving Racing Bull of Liam Lawson.

Russell said governing body the FIA had looked to modify the rule that led to those problems but said Ferrari were blocking it, without naming them.

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc leapt into the lead at the start in Melbourne from fourth on the grid, emphasising the impression that the Italian team have the best starts this year.

Russell said the problems were caused by a “very quirky rule” that limits the amount of energy a car can harvest on the formation lap.

He said that the drivers in the front part of the grid were already considered by the systems to be on the lap so their practice start away from the dummy grid counted in the harvest limit, and they then struggled to recharged the battery.

By contrast, those further back could do their launches before crossing the timing line, so could recover more energy before the actual start.

Ferrari benefited because their engine has a different design than those of other manufacturers and is easier to get off the line.

Russell said: “The FIA was looking to potentially adjust that but as you can imagine some teams who were making good starts didn’t want it, which I think is just a little bit silly.

“The FIA did just want to make our life easier and just remove this harvest limit, but people have selfish views and they want to do what’s best for themselves.”

The FIA has the power to impose a change on safety grounds but has so far stopped short of doing so in the hope of achieving consensus.

Ferrari have been approached for comment.