Five kilos is the amount that Formula 1 is close to accepting to reach the round figure of 800kg as the minimum car weight, after nine of the ten teams have admitted to having overweight cars.
Red Bull had asked that the regulation be changed to 15 kg more (a real exaggeration), others wanted an increase of 10 kg, but in the end it will come to a value of 5 kg. The teams insist a lot on this because reducing mass in cars is very difficult and very expensive: the “slimming treatment”, in fact, cannot focus only on a few details of the car, but should involve a little bit of all the systems of the car. Formula 1.
The increase in the minimum weight, therefore, would have the effect of altering development plans: since the available resources are tied to the budget limit, those who aspire to the “diet” would have to forego other planned changes.
It should be remembered that 10 kg in a circuit like Barcelona-Catalunya suppose three tenths of a second per lap, so the increase would slow down the performance climb. According to the rumors collected in the paddock, the Mercedes would have between 3.5 and 4 kg more than the expected 795 kg and the Ferrari would be in the “fork” between 5 and 10 kg, while the RB18 would be closer to the limit.
A ruling from the FIA was expected last week, but the issue will be discussed again at Sakhir during pre-season testing in Bahrain, and that is one aspect that needs to be considered and analysed.
Guanyu Zhou, Alfa Romeo C42
The Alfa Romeo C42 is the only single-seater even under the weight limit: Hinwil ‘s car is based on an ultra-light surface that allowed the Swiss team to add ballast to help balance it.
The pity for them was that the solution also ended up being extremely fragile, so that with the effect of porpoising on each straight it caused costly damage to the underside of the car, so much so that it forced the technical staff led by Jan Manchaux to raise the height of I drive about 30mm, losing a lot of downforce.
Therefore, Alfa Romeo will arrive in Bahrain with a more solid and heavier flat bottom, and will go from the minimum 795 kg, reducing the competitive advantage that the Swiss technicians had sought. This adjustment should clear the doubts of the FIA when it comes to allowing the weight of the cars to be increased by 5 kg more.
Guanyu Zhou, Alfa Romeo C42
But without the Alfa Romeo’s flat-bottom problems, the issue would have become more thorny, because they could indeed have complained about spending some of the budget-cap money on an idea that the weight gain would have thrown to the ground. And in that case, the FIA would have had to assess whether it was correct to give everyone else a huge advantage.
It seems that the case will not go any further due to the problems that have caused Alfa Romeo to exceed the limit. The category will finally reach the 800kg minimum weight without too much controversy, not least because Ross Brawn , F1 sporting director, believes the new cars are too fast, given that a greater difference in times compared to single-seaters was expected. from the previous year.
