That makes no sense. It&#x27;s never advantageous to ditch the first stage while it&#x27;s still producing thrust. At some point when <i>designing</i> a rocket, it&#x27;s better to add performance to the second stage rather than the first. But when presented with an existing rocket, you&#x27;ll achieve maximum payload capacity by burning all fuel in the first stage before staging. Every second it burns is more delta-v imparted to the payload. The only reason you&#x27;d stage early is if you want to save fuel for e.g. a landing attempt, if the first stage is too powerful and the acceleration or speed would become too great, or if you simply don&#x27;t need the extra performance to get the payload to where it&#x27;s supposed to go.