Russell reveals timing line quirk led to start issues, with a proposed fix being opposed by Ferrari

George Russell says a change that would impact starts for teams at the Chinese Grand Prix is being opposed by a rival team after a number of cars did not have full batteries on the grid in Melbourne.

A quirk of the timing line on the grid in Australia led to cars near the front of the field being limited on how much harvesting of energy they were allowed to do, because they had effectively crossed the line to start a new lap before the race itself started. Russell says it is something that could continue to raise its head – with the timing line also towards the back of the grid in China – but that the FIA cannot get the required approvals from enough teams to make a change.

“There was an error that caught a lot of teams out, which was the harvest limit on the formation lap,” said Russell, who will start from pole again for the Sprint in Shanghai. “So, a very quirky rule. Every lap there's a harvest limit. The drivers who started in the first half of the grid, who were beyond the timing line, they were already within that lap. So when you did your formation lap start, you're spending your battery and you're charging your battery which goes towards your harvest limit.

“The drivers at the back, when they did their formation lap start, they then launch away, they cross the start-finish line and then it resets because they're effectively on the next lap.

“So from what we did in the practice starts, we did the launch before this line and it reset and on the race start, starting from pole, I went on the throttle, I charged the battery but it took like 50% of my harvest limit of that lap. So when I got halfway around the track, I could no longer charge the battery, and I had no power to do proper burnouts.

“The FIA were looking to potentially adjust that but as you can imagine, some teams who are making good starts didn't want it, which I think is just a little bit silly. I'm not overly concerned but it's definitely a challenge.”

While Russell doesn’t directly name the team involved, RACER understands it is Ferrari that is against amending the rule at this stage, though the Mercedes driver doesn’t expect a repeat of the same level in Shanghai.

“I think [the FIA] want to [make changes], but they need a super majority from the teams, which they don't have," he said. "So you can probably guess which team is against that. I don't think their gain is coming from this issue. Now all the teams know the problem we'll just drive around it, but it's just creating a bit of unnecessary complications to something that doesn't really need to be there.

“Half the grid messed up in Melbourne. We'll adjust – we know what we need to be wary of now. The FIA did just want to make our life easier and just remove this harvest limit. But as often people have selfish views and they want to do what's best for themselves. That's part of Formula 1 and part of the challenge of Formula 1. We'll deal with it and I think the starts here will be much better.”