The teams on the Formula 1 grid for the 2022 season face the challenge of the new technical regulations that promise more exciting races due to the possibility of being able to follow each other between the cars without the dirty air affecting so much.
In the first three rounds of the year it has been proven that this has worked, even allowing them to fight for several laps without the overtaking rider escaping with a big difference in pace.
However, the teams have run into a major problem when it comes to putting the cars on the track, and that is that the increase in safety measures and technical specifications have caused the weight of the single-seaters to skyrocket.
At the beginning of the course, the FIA agreed on a regulatory minimum of 795 kilos, but as they investigated, they discovered that everyone exceeded this mark, so they decided to increase 3 kilos for a total of 798.
Not everyone has been able to adjust to this, and only Alfa Romeo comes close, so they were the only ones who didn’t want to increase the minimum weight, and it is clear that the higher the figure, the more you will lose in lap time.
The outfits have not provided exact figures, preferring to keep it a secret, but One Stop Strategy ‘s analysis reveals that Aston Martin could be the furthest behind in this race for weight.
Those from Silverstone, according to the information that has been revealed, have the AMR22 with 815 kilos , which means that they are 17 kilos above the regulatory minimum, and that translates into a loss of about six tenths per turn.
Red Bull is not far behind in this peculiar classification, and it is estimated that its RB18 marks about 810 kilos on the scale, although those of energy drinks have already launched a plan to reduce the figure as soon as possible.
These two groups are followed by Mercedes (806 kg), McLaren (805 kg), Haas (803 kg) and Williams, Alfa Romeo, AlphaTauri and Ferrari (800 kg each).
It is clear that everyone is working on reducing the weight of their cars in 2022, but this entails a very high cost, which is estimated at around 250,000 euros per kilogram.
In Red Bull they recognize the overweight of their RB18 , and as the team’s advisor, Helmut Marko, stated, the car is 10 kilos heavier than its main rivals. The Austrians, in addition to having to sacrifice resources to lose weight, have before them the challenge of reliability, since it is not easy to balance a car to be light without compromising the rest of the components.
Thus, bringing the single-seaters to the minimum weight stipulated by the FIA for the 2022 season would cause an almost unaffordable expense for many teams, even more so counting the budget limit of 117 million euros .
In the case of Aston Martin, doing the math, reducing 17 kilos would entail a disbursement of more than 4 million euros, that is, 3.63% of the budget to solve a problem that should not even be present.
