"McLaren starts very well" - why Kimi Antonelli and Mercedes must tackle F1 start problems

Championship leader has a new clutch paddle for Canadian GP weekend as Mercedes searches for "something we're missing" after string of poor race starts

Mercedes has the fastest car on the grid – but one of the defining features of the Formula 1 season so far has been its regular inability to make a clean getaway from the start. Either George Russell or Kimi Antonelli has claimed pole position for all four of the opening grands prix, and championship leader Antonelli was on pole for the China sprint.

Only in the Miami sprint has a car other than a Mercedes started from pole position. And yet it has been rare indeed for one of the Mercedes drivers to be decisively ahead into the first corner – in both the opening rounds, the polesitter was mugged by a Ferrari before Turn 1.

In Miami, Antonelli dropped from second to fourth at the start of the sprint, and was so discombobulated that he then racked up enough track-limits violations to be demoted from fourth on the road to sixth place at the chequered flag. In the grand prix, from pole position he dropped two places at the start, complicating his task of converting the Mercedes' superior pace into the eventual race win.

After that race, team boss Toto Wolff said it was "not acceptable" for this to continue when there is a championship at stake.

"This weekend we're bringing a lot of new things in the car, and definitely also there's a few bits about the starts," Antonelli told media including Motorsport.com ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix.

"We have a new clutch paddle on my side, just a different shape, just to help me to be a bit more consistent with the drop [of the clutch]. Of course, the team has been working very hard on the software side as well, and also on the clutch side, just to try and find more performance, and also make the system a bit more robust.

"But for sure, there's been a lot of work going on, because, for example, McLaren, they have the same PU as us, and they're starting very well, so definitely there's something that we're missing. But this weekend, we're bringing a lot of changes, and we'll see if it's going to be better or not."

Antonelli made sub-optimal starts in both Miami races despite spending much of the April break practicing them

Photo by: Mark Thompson / Getty Images

Although McLaren buys its power unit and associated electrical ancillaries from Mercedes, it builds its own gearbox since this confers more design control over the rear suspension geometry, given that the wishbones mount to the gearbox casing. It's also common practice for the hand-operated clutch to have an element of driver customisation, with the paddle shaped for their fingers.

Racing clutches have a fierce bite, so operating them involves a degree of ‘muscle memory' in reaching that biting point, while the actual deployment of power depends on software mapping as well as the driver's right foot. The removal of the MGU-H element from the power units this year has added complication in this area because of the greater turbo lag: setting the optimal clutch biting point and initial power curve requires a lot of data about the grip level of the circuit relative to tyre temperature.

In the Miami sprint race, Antonelli's sub-optimal launch was put down to him missing the final portion of the practice session with a power unit issue. This meant he didn't undertake the scheduled run on soft-compound tyres, which would have furnished the necessary data for the race start.

While Mercedes continues to enjoy a pace advantage – although other teams closed the gap with technical upgrades in Miami – this can never be taken for granted in F1, so even teams in a dominant position cannot afford to squander scoring opportunities. It is widely known in the paddock that Wolff has been quietly furious that McLaren – a customer – has beaten his team to the last two constructors' championships, so it must have continued to be galling for the papaya cars to enjoy faster launches from the grid.

"We all know it's just not good enough," said Wolff after the Miami weekend.

"We're not doing a good enough job in giving them a tool in their hands, whether it's clutch or the grip estimates. And we are the only ones who, let's say, don't get that right now for a few races.

"And we just have to dig even deeper and to try to understand how we can fix that, because… the gaps are not big enough to cruise into the sunset and therefore you can't be missing starts."