Formula 1: George Russell says Ferrari is ‘selfish’ about rules change

Mercedes driver George Russell has accused Ferrari of being “selfish” and “ridiculous” in blocking rules changes to improve safety at the start.

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

Russell said the FIA ​​was looking to amend the rule that led to the problems but said Ferrari was blocking it, without naming them.

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc jumped to the lead at the start of the race in Melbourne from fourth on the grid, confirming the impression that the Italian team had its best start of the year.

Russell said the problems are caused by a “very crooked base” that limits the amount of power the car can harvest in a shaping cycle.

He said drivers at the front of the grid were considered by the systems to already be on a lap, so their practice started away from the dummy grid calculated at the harvest limit, and they then had difficulty recharging the battery.

By contrast, those behind can do launches before crossing the timing line, and can thus recover more energy before the actual start.

Ferrari has benefited because its engine has a different design than other manufacturers’ engines and is easier to get off the line.

“The FIA ​​was looking to tweak that, but as you can imagine, some of the teams that had good starts didn’t want to, which I think is just a bit ridiculous,” Russell said.

“The FIA ​​just wanted to make our lives easier and remove this harvest limit, but people have selfish views and want to do what is best for themselves.”

The FIA ​​has the power to force the change for safety reasons, but has so far stopped short of doing so in the hope of reaching consensus.

Ferrari has been contacted for comment.