One of Ferrari's stand out advantages early on in the 2026 Formula 1 season was its starts – but it is an edge that it may now have lost.

The rocket getaways enjoyed by Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were thanks to Ferrari going for a smaller turbo that was much easier to spool up on the grid compared to those who had different concepts.

But Ferrari quickly found out that the difficulties others faced in getting off the line triggered a safety debate that led to pressure on the FIA to change things.

The response, an extended period that came in before the lights sequence began, helped those in trouble to not botch things up. And Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur was unhappy about what he felt was a change of the rules.

"To have half of the grid, 40% of the grid, complaining that it's mega dangerous and so on, politically [it] was well played but not very fair," Vasseur told The Race recently.

Despite being unhappy about what came in, the tweaks did not completely wipe out Ferrari's jumps off the line, with a Prancing Horse car surging into the lead in Australia, China and Miami.

But after a Canadian Grand Prix weekend where for the first time in 2026 a Ferrari car did not go through Turn 1 in the top three, has Ferrari's advantage already been wiped away?

The data from this season certainly points in that direction.

Based on the criteria of where the Ferraris are going through the opening turn at each race (on some occasions positions change after the corner exit), there is an obvious trend if you compare Melbourne to now.

From the cumulative seven places gained by Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in the season opener in Melbourne, the positions forward have steadily decreased over each race.

At the recent Canadian Grand Prix, both drivers gained just one place off the line in the main race, with only Hamilton moving forward in the sprint.

Australian GP
Charles Leclerc:  4th > 1st
Lewis Hamilton: 7th > 3rd
GAIN: 7

Chinese GP
Sprint
Leclerc: 6th > 4th
Hamilton: 4th  > 3rd
GAIN: 3 

Grand Prix
Leclerc: 4th > 2nd
Hamilton: 3rd > 1st
GAIN: 4 

Japanese GP
Leclerc: 4th > 2nd
Hamilton: 6th > 5th
GAIN: 3 

Miami GP
Sprint
Leclerc: 4th > 3rd
Hamilton: 7th  > 6th
GAIN: 2

Grand Prix
Leclerc: 3rd > 1st
Hamilton: 6th > 6th
GAIN: 2 

Canadian GP
Sprint
Leclerc: 6th > 6th
Hamilton: 5th > 4th
GAIN: 1

Grand Prix
Leclerc: 8th > 7th
Hamilton: 5th > 4th
GAIN: 2

A relative game

Ferrari getting hauled in is not the result of it doing any worse a job than it did earlier in the year, but is more the consequences of others getting their acts together.

There is an element of Ferrari perhaps being flattered as others were either miles off or not featuring at all.

McLaren, for example, has emerged as a team that has been pretty on top of starts from testing.

As Oscar Piastri said in Canada: "Our starts have been better than the Ferrari's all year, so we're confident in ours."

But the side-by-side potential of McLaren and Ferrari was not clear early on because McLaren was often sidelined. Piastri did not start in Australia and neither McLaren made the grid in China.

Max Verstappen had his fair share of start dramas early on too which he and Red Bull have now got on top of.

Furthermore, the Mercedes cars that have regularly locked out the front row were not too good at getaways early on – and them dropping back added more to Ferrari's gains. But there's been a big change here.

Mercedes' changes

In Canada last weekend, following a lot of work by Mercedes, both Kimi Antonelli and George Russell had much improved getaways – leading for the first time in Turn 1 in the sprint and only losing out to the intermediate shod McLaren of Lando Norris in the grand prix.

The improvements from Mercedes targeted two key areas. The first was better judging grip levels at the start through improved software, with the team having been caught out by this aspect in Miami in particular.

The second area was helping Antonelli in particular have better feel with his clutch paddle, having been a bit too optimistic with his release at times earlier in the year.

So for Montreal, as our exclusive photograph shows, he refined the finger holes that are used at the starts – appearing to adjust the depth and location of the channel.

Speaking about it before the weekend, Antonelli said: "It's just a different shape, just to help me to be a bit more consistent with the drops."

Heading to the Monaco Grand Prix this weekend, where making a good start from the front row is critical, everything points to Ferrari not being able to count on the kind of advantage it had a couple of months ago.