Lewis Hamilton has dismissed concerns over the dangers potentially posed by cars moving away slowly at starts.
The FIA made changes to the pre-race starting procedure before the season began as teams had observed significant differences in the quality of their standing starts with Formula 1’s new power units.
Despite this, some drivers have occasionally suffered from slow getaways. Franco Colapinto was involved in a dramatic near-miss when Liam Lawson’s car pulled away slowly at the start of last weekend’s Australian Grand Prix.
This prompted other drivers to warn the risk remains too great. Sergio Perez said this week “it’s just a matter of time until a massive shunt happens” which would be “very, very dangerous” because of the speed difference.
However Hamilton is not convinced starts pose a greater danger than before. “I think it’s more exciting,” he said. “When we all get off [the line] exactly the same it’s boring. I don’t think it’s dangerous.”
Ferrari’s power unit – which both Hamilton and Perez use – is believed to perform particularly well at starts due to the smaller size of its turbo. The drivers who have experienced particularly slow starts in races include Lawson and Max Verstappen, who use Red Bull-Ford engines, and Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
“There are some people that [when] developing an engine [have] taken certain decisions in order to get power,” Hamilton continued. “We took specific decisions, or our team did, to make sure we got good starts.”
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In Australia Charles Leclerc started fourth and took the lead off pole-winner George Russell by the first corner. But Russell initially kept the lead from pole position in today’s sprint race. “George got just as good a start as I did,” Hamilton noted, “and so I think it will eventually fizzle out and [they will all] be similar.”
Russell said his team had “found workarounds” to the problems they experienced with their start in Melbourne. But he expects starts will be more challenging at tracks where the grip levels are lower than in Shanghai.
“On the formation lap you’re doing all these different switch changes and driving styles, and it’s just unnecessarily complicated. The starts are still challenging.
“Last year Shanghai was the second-grippiest start [grid] of the season, and you still see a lot of people struggling. So, when you get to other places where the grip is lower, I think we’re still going to see cars spinning the tyres and struggling to get off the grid.
“But I don’t necessarily think it’s down to any safety [concern]. There isn’t really a straightforward fix, and I think that’s just the nature of these cars and tyres, to be honest.”
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2026 Chinese Grand Prix
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