George Russell indirectly labels the Ferrari team as ‘selfish’. According to the driver, the FIA was on the verge of adjusting the ‘peculiar rules’ regarding the race start, but the governing body was unable to do so due to opposition from the Scuderia. ‘As often happens, people have selfish views and want to do what is best for themselves’, said Russell.
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George Russell took the first victory of the year in Australia, but the win did not just fall into the Briton’s lap. At the start, the Mercedes driver was immediately overtaken by Charles Leclerc due to a battery percentage that was too low. According to Russell, the rules regarding race starts worked counterproductively for most drivers on the grid, but not for Ferrari. Therefore, the Scuderia reportedly wanted to block a rule change for the starting procedure from the FIA.
“Unfortunately, when you want to implement changes for the benefit of the sport, teams with a competitive advantage – like Ferrari at the moment with the race start – do not like to see anything change”, Russell told Sky Sports F1. “I think half the field was caught out by a quirk in the rules for the start of the race in Melbourne. We know that now, but because some teams are resisting change, we will just have to learn to live with it.”
The ‘peculiar rule’ explained
The Mercedes driver explains that the ‘peculiar rule’ has to do with the charging limit for the battery. This is fixed per lap. “It is a very strange rule, because the drivers who were in the front half of the field had officially already passed the timing point and were therefore officially already in the first lap”, Russell explains. “At the start of the formation lap, you use your battery and recharge it. That counts towards the charging limit, the amount of energy we are allowed to recover during a lap. The drivers who started at the back did their practice start before the start-finish – before the timing point – so the counter resets when they drive over it and effectively enter the next lap.”
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The Silver Arrows had not taken this rule into account prior to the race, because during the practice starts in Bahrain they were still before the timing point. “So after our practice start, that figure was reset to zero”, Russell recalls. “At the start of the formation lap, I started from pole position and accelerated first. I charged my battery, but in doing so I already used half of the energy I was allowed to recover in that lap. Halfway through the lap, I could no longer charge the battery.”
‘Some people are selfish’
According to Russell, the FIA has the possibility to adjust the rule, but they need the consent of most teams to do so. “You can probably guess which team is against it”, the Briton refers to Ferrari. Although drivers will be able to drive around the rules from the Chinese GP onwards, the driver says it would have been easier if the FIA could have abolished the charging limit immediately. “But, as often happens, people have selfish views and want to do what is best for themselves. And that is part of Formula 1. We will deal with it and I think the starts in China will be much better.”
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