The minimum weight of the cars of the Great Circus experienced a very important increase, going from 752 to 795 kilos for the current course. The move to 18-inch wheels with hubcaps and new safety features have been the main drivers of the rise.
However, the teams have recognized that they have had problems reaching that limit, and that is that an unexpected factor appeared, the need to reinforce the ground effect, which in the first tests in Barcelona proved to be more vulnerable to damage and bending than their predecessors.
On the first day of testing in Bahrain, F1 general manager Ross Brawn explained that the teams were facing a difficult task: “What has become clear is that meeting the minimum weight is going to be a challenge for these cars.
“There are a lot of innovations in safety after the terrible accident at Spa in F2 a few years ago or the Romain Grosjean crash, so the weight limit was increased,” he told F1 TV.
With teams facing additional pressure from the budget ceiling, they requested an amendment to increase weight, which would simplify the management of funds dedicated to this area.
Although some asked for a higher figure, they have agreed to a rise of 3 kilos so as not to harm those who did comply with the regulations too much. The change must be formally ratified by the FIA World Motor Sport Council , so we will have to wait for official confirmation.
“I guess everyone is overweight,” said Mercedes boss Toto Wolff . “We’re trying to figure out how many extra kilos the rest have, and so there’s been a small step, but as long as it’s the same for everyone, weight loss or not, that’s fine with us.”
His namesake at Ferrari, Mattia Binotto , agreed that 3 kilos was a good figure: “We must not forget that these current cars are much heavier than last year. I think that increasing the weight is never ideal for sport and speed, but we have talked about this to increase the minimum mark by 3 kilos”.
“It’s a good compromise between all of us, but I think we shouldn’t increase more because, as Toto [Toto] said, this is competition. For the future we should try to reduce the weight of the cars,” continued the Italian.
Another team manager, in this case AlphaTauri’s, Franz Tost , also ventured to speak about this modification: “It’s always difficult, it’s a completely new regulation. These cars are very complex, and designing everything to reach the minimum weight is a very, very difficult exercise.
“As we can see almost all the teams, most of them are overweight, but this figure is good. It’s about the costs, since losing weight is very expensive, and since we have a financial limit, I think that the way in which it is decided it was the right one among the teams”, settled the Austrian.
