George Russell has admitted his concern over Mercedes' inferiority at race starts compared to Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton ahead of the opening race of the 2026 Formula 1 season.

The sport's all new cars for 2026, which feature both new power units and chassis after a major regulation change, provide drivers with a vastly different challenge to pull away from the grid efficiently.

The FIA have been trialling a new start procedure at this week's final pre-season testing event in Bahrain to allow drivers adequate time to prepare their cars for lights out, but even with that adjustment there appears to be greater variance than seen in recent years.

"I think we've got a lot of potential beneath us," said Russell, who has been installed as the bookies' favourite for the drivers' title amid Mercedes' generally impressive pre-season showing.

"But to win a race, you've also got to get off the line quite well. And I think the two starts I've made this week were worse than my worst ever start in Formula 1."

Ferrari appear to have designed a power unit that currently copes best with the new challenge, and Hamilton exhibited that when making stunning getaways in practice starts held at the end of each of Thursday's two sessions in Sakhir.

Russell continued: "And, Lewis, down in P11, got into P1. So, at this stage, I don't think it matters how quick you are.

"I think that's going to trip you up, it's going to be that tallest hurdle. And that's what we're trying to get our heads around right now, and we're stumbling on some at the moment."

Piastri: Early season starts could be 'very random'

McLaren's Oscar Piastri, who uses the same Mercedes engine as Russell and therefore should have a relatively similar starting experience, appeared less concerned.

However, the Australian warned that there could be significant variance at starts in the opening races of the season, the first of which is the Australian Grand Prix on March 8, before the field converge as all the teams get on top of the challenge.

Piastri said: "I thought mine yesterday wasn't too bad. I was last, but I think I passed about four cars as well. I think it's just very random at the moment, and I think we're all kind of learning what makes a good start, what makes a bad start.

"There are some pretty big pitfalls, you can find if you get yourself in trouble. But even just managing the power and the procedure is kind of one thing, but also just the way we do starts is much more difficult than last year.

"It's trickier from every single angle. And I think what we're seeing at the moment is people just getting things right and other people getting them very wrong.

"So, I think certainly at the first few races, we could see some starts that look a bit like what we have this week. But I think we'll start to converge hopefully pretty quickly if you're on the bad side of that."

Russell wary of Red Bull threat in Australia

Despite the consensus in the paddock throughout the pre-season having been that Mercedes are the team to beat, Russell maintained he is still very wary of the threat Red Bull will pose at the season-opener.

Russell observed last week at the first of the two testing events held in Bahrain that Red Bull's energy deployment was providing them with a "scary" advantage over the rest of the field, which surprised many given the Milton Keynes squad are producing their own engine for the first time.

The Brit admitted that Mercedes have closed the gap in that department over six days of running in Bahrain, but is worried that Red Bull could be able to hit the ground running across just three hours of practice before qualifying in Melbourne.

"Their deployment definitely still looks the best on the grid, which is kudos to them, and I think was a bit of a surprise to everybody," Russell said."

"So, I think let's see come Melbourne how things shake up.

"I think the Mercedes-powered teams have made a lot of improvements since day one of Bahrain last week, so that gap has closed drastically.

"But we're obviously day six of Bahrain testing now, whereas in Melbourne you've got three hours of practice and that's the main point of the concern."

Red Bull chief Laurent Mekies played down his team's pace earlier in the week, insisting that they were trailing traditional 'big four' rivals Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari, but four-time world champion Max Verstappen has been impressive throughout testing.

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