F1 Chinese Grand Prix: George Russell accuses 'selfish' Ferrari of blocking FIA rule change

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George Russell accuses 'selfish' Ferrari of blocking FIA rule change

George Russell is not pleased with Lewis Hamilton's F1 outfit

Matthew Hobkinson Lead Editor

F1 Editor & Journalist

Friday 13 March 2026 11:59

Mercedes F1 star George Russell has pointed the finger at Ferrari for being 'selfish', blocking the FIA from making a change to the 2026 regulations.

Russell lived up to his tag as title favourite this year as he cruised home to victory in Melbourne for the season opener.

Charles Leclerc managed to make life difficult for him in the opening stages, but the Mercedes star eventually pulled clear with a well-executed one-stop strategy.

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The slight headache that Leclerc did cause Russell stemmed from a phenomenal start in Australia that saw the Ferrari driver catapult from P4 to P1 heading into the first corner.

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Russell: Ferrari being 'selfish' over F1 race starts

F1's race starts have been a hot topic this year (all the gory details you need are right here!) and now Russell has claimed that Ferrari are to blame for the FIA's inability to change things.

"Unfortunately, sometimes when you're trying to make changes for the good of the sport, if a team has a competitive edge - like Ferrari at the moment with the race starts - they wouldn't wish to see anything changing," Russell told Sky F1.

"I think half the grid got caught out by a quirk in the rules for the race start in Melbourne. We now know that, but because there was some resistance from some teams to change, we're just going to have to work around it."

Although Russell never mentions Fred Vasseur's team by name, it is clear that the title favourite for this year is talking about Ferrari given their lightning fast start at the Australian Grand Prix last weekend.

"The FIA was looking to potentially adjust that [the start procedure], 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. I'm not overly concerned, but it's definitely a challenge," he told the written press in Shanghai.

Charles Leclerc went from P4 to P1 at the start of the Aus GP

Pushed if F1's governing body wants the rule to be changed, Russell said: "They could do. I think they want to, but they need a supermajority from the teams, which they don't have. 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. And 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."

When is the next F1 race?

Russell will be back in action with Mercedes for the second round of the F1 2026 season at this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix.

The main race will take place on Sunday, March 15, at 3pm local time (CST), 7am GMT, and 3am ET, but Shanghai will also stage the first of six sprint races this year, with a full sprint schedule in play for this weekend.

F1 2026 Regulations: Every new rule and car change explained

Ferrari FIA George Russell Chinese Grand Prix