Ferrari no longer has its previous advantage at the start of the races.

      At the beginning of the season, Ferrari drivers definitely started better than their competitors, gaining several positions in the first seconds of the Grand Prix, but it seems that by the start of the European stage of the championship, this advantage has already been lost.

      The rapid acceleration of Charles Leclerc's and Lewis Hamilton's cars was ensured by the design features of the power unit, specifically, the more compact size of the turbocharger, which was much easier to spin up to the required RPM than the turbochargers in the engines of other manufacturers.

      We reported a couple of weeks ago on the decisions made in this regard at the FIA and Formula 1 level, and how Frederic Vasseur, the head of the Italian team, reacted to them.

      Nevertheless, before the Canadian stage of the championship, the red cars still accelerated quite rapidly, but in Montreal, for the first time this year, Ferrari was unable to utilize its previous advantage. In the Saturday sprint, Lewis Hamilton was able to gain only one position, overtaking Oscar Piastri, and in the main race of the weekend, both were able to move forward, but again only by one position.

      However, it is not that Ferrari is worse at starts – rather, this impression arises because competitors have gradually improved in this crucial aspect of the racing process as they dealt with various technical difficulties that plagued them at the beginning of the season.

      In particular, The Race quotes Piastri, who stated quite categorically in Canada: "Our starts have been better all year than Ferrari's, so we are confident in our cars."

      We have to take his word for it, as in Australia, Oscar crashed his car on the way to the starting grid, and in China, the McLaren cars did not participate in the race at all. So, to some extent, Scuderia was able to fully utilize its advantage due to the problems of other teams. This includes Max Verstappen, who did not start well at the beginning of the season, but now Red Bull Racing has figured it out.

      The same applies fully to Mercedes: in Montreal, Kimi Antonelli and George Russell started perfectly in the sprint, except that on Sunday, Lando Norris surged ahead in the first seconds of the race, but that was due to the intermediate tires on his MCL40. Soon, McLaren had to pay for the risky tire choice, but that's another question.

      According to The Race, Mercedes has made improvements in two key aspects. Firstly, thanks to more advanced software, the team can now more accurately determine the grip level of the driving wheels at the start, thus reducing the risk of wheel spin. Secondly, in Canada, Kimi Antonelli's car was equipped with an upgraded clutch paddle, making it noticeably easier for the driver to operate, as he feels all stages of this process better.

      "It's just that now it's a different shape; it's designed so that I act more consistently at the moment when I need to release the clutch," Kimi explained.

      There are opinions that in Monaco, Ferrari may finally compete for pole position and victory in the Grand Prix for the first time this season, but on the classic city circuit, a good start from the front row is more important than at other stages of the season – only the Italian team can no longer count on its former advantage.