After the change in the Formula 1 regulations in 2022, the designers of all the teams on the grid had to face the serious problem of being overweight that these single-seaters suffer from.
Even after the FIA , before the start of the championship, allowed the minimum car weight to be raised from 795kg to 798kg, teams continued to complain and were forced to invest much of their research into improvements to lighten the chassis.
In principle, only Alfa Romeo was able to win the battle against the challenge and meet the limit that had been set. In fact, the Hinwil team encountered many problems with the floor of their car being too light and flexible, but at the beginning of the season they strengthened this aspect, achieving the perfect combination of mass and chassis stability.
After these increases, there are still rumors in the paddock that some teams continue to pressure the FIA to further increase the minimum car weight. In an interview with Motorsport.com, Alfa Romeo boss Frédéric Vasseur wanted to give his opinion on the situation.
“Honestly, I don’t understand all this fuss,” said the Frenchman. “It seems to me that when you create a completely new F1 car, weight is usually the most important objective at the start. You can’t remember this at the last minute.
“And it seems to me that some teams have played undercover games with the FIA, hoping they would raise the minimum weight bar [even higher].
“This would be a complete injustice. As we were working on the current project, we made several fundamental decisions, difficult decisions related to, among other things, the weight. But everyone knows that this is what F1 is: everyone here tries to play his own game.”
The Alfa Romeo added: “Personally, for me it is quite clear that the problem of the masses was absolutely solvable. Everyone could have avoided it.”
“Right now some teams can’t reach the minimum target, but that’s only because they chose other options to gain more performance by sacrificing weight,” he concluded.
After four grands prix, Valtteri Bottas, who has so far led the team ahead of rookie Guanyu Zhou, has been able to score 24 points and is eighth in the drivers’ championship, while the team, which has left very good sensations, is in fifth position in the constructors’ championship.
