If you wanted a neat, representative preview of how Formula 1 is going to launch off the line in 2026, Bahrain’s post-session practice starts weren’t it. The new start procedure – including a second formation lap and a five-second blue warning light before the red lights sequence begins – produced exactly the kind of scrappy, mismatched getaways that get social media spinning up “crisis” narratives in February.
Alex Albon isn’t buying the panic, and he’s got a fairly grounded reason why: what everyone watched in testing was a grid made of different tyres, different tyre lives, and wildly different preparation.
“I don’t think what you’re seeing is really what’s going to happen,” Albon said in Bahrain. “You’ve got drivers who were finishing long runs, going into a practice start, doing high mileage on a tyre that’s already hot.
“So, you’re seeing this chaos of some people getting good starts, bad starts. But actually, it’s not as bad as that.”
Albon’s point is less about dismissing the underlying challenge and more about stripping away the noise. In testing, the “start” is often bolted onto the end of a programme designed for something else entirely. Some cars roll up having just completed a heavy-fuel stint; others arrive after a cool-down and a reset; some drivers are essentially practising clutch and throttle maps, others are just going through the motions. Compare that to Melbourne, where everyone arrives at the grid on the same compound selection logic, with tyres managed for a single violent moment rather than an extra handful of laps in the middle of a run plan.
“I think once everyone has the same tyres on the car and it’s the same formation lap for everyone, it will look – maybe not as smooth as last year – but it will be really okay,” he said.
That “maybe not as smooth” is doing some work, because the 2026 power unit changes have undeniably shifted the start problem back into the spotlight. With the MGU-H removed, the choreography of getting the car moving cleanly is different: drivers will be relying on internal combustion power working in conjunction with the turbocharger, and there’s been concern that if they’re stationary for too long on the grid, turbo response could fall away and the initial pick-up becomes inconsistent. Several drivers have flagged turbo lag as a particular worry for those starting further back, where you’re more exposed to the knock-on effects of hesitations and accordioning.
It’s part of why the sport has been trialling tweaks to the procedure in the first place, chasing two things at once: a safer, more controlled build-up, and a more consistent window for drivers to get the power unit in the right operating range before the lights go out.
What caught most eyes in Bahrain was less the new blue light and more the spread in performance. Ferrari-powered cars, in particular, appeared to be snapping off the line more cleanly in several of the practice starts, to the point it became a paddock talking point rather than a footnote. Mercedes driver George Russell has already pointed to starts as a potential weakness for his side, while Haas driver Oliver Bearman – enjoying Ferrari power – joked it might be the other way around for him.
Albon’s read is that it’s premature to treat those clips as a definitive pecking order. Tyre condition is a massive variable in launch performance, and testing is basically designed to maximise variables. The more interesting question is whether any manufacturer has landed a more forgiving calibration window for the driver, because that’s what will matter in the heat of a real start: not the perfect launch once, but repeatability when your heart rate is up and the guy next to you is creeping into your peripheral vision.
Nico Hülkenberg also urged caution, pointing out that everyone is still missing the most important piece of evidence: a proper, full-grid race start in representative conditions. Until that happens, most conclusions are educated guesses dressed up as certainty.
“I think that’s one of the areas that is quite different from last year and the past,” Hülkenberg said. “I think it’s still very fresh, still very new. We don’t have that much experience, especially, a proper race race start with all the cars on the grid.
“I think it’s one of the areas where a lot is still to discover and to do, and then cleaning up to do, because on the previous generation of PUs that was perfect and seamless and smooth, and, quite naturally, this is a new set of regulations, and obviously there’s a lot to do and to explore there.”
That’s the key: “cleaning up”. Under the old, mature regulations, starts had reached that almost boring level of polish where the big drama was usually human error rather than systemic unpredictability. In 2026, the sport is essentially re-learning some old lessons, and it’s doing it while also trying to make the procedure itself more robust.
So will Melbourne look like the messy Bahrain montages? Probably not. A race start is a far more controlled, uniform event than a testing add-on, and Albon is right that tyre parity alone will tighten up the spread. But it would be a mistake to assume that because the optics will improve, the underlying complexity has gone away. The first few grands prix are likely to feature a bit more variance in launch quality than we’ve become accustomed to – and in a midfield as tightly packed as this one expects to be, a half-car length at the line can be the difference between clean air and someone else’s dirty work by Turn 1.
In other words: don’t overreact to the “chaos” clips from testing. Save the real judgement for when everyone is on the same tyres, on the same grid, with the same stakes — and nowhere to hide when the lights go out.
