At the start of the 2026 Formula 1 season, Ferrari appeared to have discovered a rare advantage: launches so explosive that they could completely reshape the running order before the cars even reached the first corner. It was both a technical and psychological weapon, built around the decision to use a smaller, more responsive turbocharger capable of delivering immediate power as soon as the lights went out.
For Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, it quickly became a trademark. Perfect reactions, clean trajectories and positions gained before the race had truly begun became a recurring theme during the opening rounds of the campaign.
That advantage, however, did not last. Not because Ferrari lost performance, but because the rest of the grid — and Formula 1 politics — gradually restored the balance.
The small turbo, the big advantage, and the politics that neutralized it
The struggles experienced by several rival teams during the opening races immediately sparked a debate over safety. Many drivers found the pre-start procedure difficult to manage, prompting the FIA to intervene by extending the time before the start lights were activated.
On paper, it seemed like a minor procedural adjustment. In reality, it gave teams that had been struggling more time to prepare correctly and eliminated many of the mistakes that had previously occurred on the grid.
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur did not hide his frustration with the decision: “Politically, it was a well-played move, but not a very loyal one.”
In his view, Ferrari ended up paying the price for a regulation adjustment that effectively helped teams which had not found equally effective technical solutions on their own. Even after the change, Ferrari continued to produce strong starts. Australia, China and Miami all showed that the package was still working exactly as intended.
However, the statistics reveal a gradual decline in Ferrari’s advantage. From the seven positions gained at Melbourne through the opening phase of the season, the trend slowly weakened until Canada, where for the first time in 2026 neither Ferrari reached Turn 1 inside the top three positions.
This was not a collapse in performance. It was simply a sign that the world around Ferrari had stopped making mistakes.
McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes have found the answer
McLaren had already shown strong launch performance, although circumstances prevented that strength from becoming evident in the opening races. Oscar Piastri did not start in Australia, while both McLaren cars were absent from the grid in China.
Now that those issues are behind them, the comparison has become much more meaningful.
“Our starts have been better than Ferrari’s all year,” said Oscar Piastri in Canada.
Looking at the data, it is difficult to argue with that assessment. Red Bull has solved the early-season launch issues that affected Max Verstappen, allowing the Dutch driver to return to the precise and aggressive starts that have become one of his trademarks. Mercedes, meanwhile, has largely eliminated the poor launches that repeatedly cost positions despite strong qualifying performances.
During the opening races, those Mercedes mistakes unintentionally exaggerated Ferrari’s apparent advantage. Every position lost by a rival made Ferrari’s gains look even more impressive. That bonus has now disappeared.
The core issue is straightforward: Ferrari has not become slower off the line; it has simply lost the asymmetry that made it stand out. Early in the season, several competitors were out of sync, behind in development, or in some cases not even present on the grid. Today, everyone is there, everyone is prepared, and everyone is operating at a much higher level.
Under those conditions, the smaller turbocharger alone is no longer enough to create a decisive gap.
A new phase for Ferrari
The Canadian Grand Prix marked a clear turning point. Ferrari remains capable of producing strong race starts, but it no longer dominates that phase of the race as it did during the opening rounds of the season.
The superpower that defined the first races of 2026 has effectively disappeared, and the SF-26 is not necessarily to blame. A combination of political decisions, technical normalization across the grid and the resurgence of Ferrari’s main rivals has completely reshaped the competitive landscape. If Ferrari wants to regain its ability to reach Turn 1 ahead of the field on a regular basis, it will need to discover a new advantage.
Because when it comes to race starts, the edge that once made Ferrari stand out now belongs to the past.
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