The subject of weight has always been one of the most sensitive in Formula 1. It is certainly not a habit, considering that on a track like Montmelò ten kilograms more or less mean a difference of almost three tenths of a second per lap.
The technical evolution in the last decade has seen a progressive increase in the minimum weight, for different reasons ranging from regulatory changes, to the growth of the requirements imposed by the safety regulations up to a natural evolution of the technology that required to have on the single-seaters. additional components.
From 2013, the last season with naturally aspirated V8s, to 2022, the minimum weight of single-seaters has increased by 24%, from 642 to 795 kilograms, and despite the fact that the FIA has granted 43 kilograms more than last year to meet the demands of the new technical regulation, many teams have encountered difficulties in being able to stay within the minimum limits imposed.
Obviously it didn’t take long to learn of the first pressures that came to the FIA to review the minimum weight, and in this particular circumstance it doesn’t seem to be just a few teams that push on this, but almost all teams, including the top teams.
The regulation provides that in the event that the FIA is in favor of the change, the vote of eight out of ten teams is required to approve a change to the technical regulation, but in the general scenario there is a big difference compared to the past, and that is the budget. Postal Code.
The design of a single-seater today is no longer just a technical exercise aiming at maximum performance, but the search for the perfect balance between cost and performance. From this point of view, if even just one team has invested its technical and financial resources to optimize its minimum weight, for example, renouncing greater investments on the aerodynamic front, in the event of a change of rules at the last minute it would find itself penalized even before the Inaugural Grand Prix.
That is why the FIA is carefully evaluating his position, and without his positive opinion the proposal will be rejected.
Teams always follow only one line, namely their own interest, and now there are those who invoke the spending limit as a constraint that prevents the expensive ‘diet’ that overweight cars should be subjected to.
Reducing weight costs, but the challenge that the budget cap imposes is precisely that of knowing how to direct financial resources at the birth of the project, and not trying to change the rules afterwards as it seems to be currently.
On the eve of the first season born under a budget cap there is the risk of already going to undermine the guidelines imposed by the new rules.
This is why the request made by various teams is still on standby, not only a technical problem is at stake, but also the approach with which the International Federation will have to evaluate every single request for a revision of the rules from now on.
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