Formula 1 teams are fighting the war of weight. Helmut Marko, Red Bull consultant, said that a world championship cannot be won with a single-seater that exceeds the 798 kg limit. The commitment of the technicians is to make the cars lose weight, well aware that 10 kg is worth three tenths of a second on a track like that of Barcelona, as well as a new aerodynamic package.
To complicate matters, there is the budget cap which has set the spending limit for the 2022 season at 140 million dollars and, even the developments, are included in the count, so the world game can be heavily influenced by the ability to introduce new things. which can improve performance with sustainable costs.
George Russell, Mercedes W13
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
There are teams that are trying to submit their cars to a slimming diet: on an F1 it is one of the most complicated exercises because to achieve a result it is necessary to intervene on every aspect of the car, touching delicate aspects such as the introduction of materials. more exotic (among those allowed) that can affect reliability, durability and even the price.
According to a reliable assessment that we had collected in the paddock, the reduction of 1 kilogram over the 798 minimum can cost around 250 thousand euros.
Well, important teams are considering stripping parts of the cars to gain a few grams, making what Mercedes did when Alfred Neubauer, sporting director, on 3 June 1934 on the occasion of the ADAC Eifelrennen at the Nurburgring decided to remove the white color. from the Mercedes-Benz W25 because the car exceeded the 750 kg limit by 1 kilo, giving life to the “silver arrows”, leaving the aluminum bodywork visible.
The Mercedes-Benz W25 at the Goodwood Revival in 2017
Photo by: Dave Dyer
In the meantime, it is worth highlighting that the cars of the 1930s of the last century were lighter than the F1 of today, but it is at least curious to note that more or less a kilo the current cars could remove it by changing the type of paint with a maximum cost. of 25 thousand euros, that is to say the tenth part of what is necessary working on the lightening of the single parts of the machine.
We talked about it with Gian Luca Falleti, owner of Nanoprom, the Sassuolese nanotechnology company ready to return to F1 with a paint derived from Polysil: “In the meantime, it is not a paint – explains Falleti – but a liquid glass that does not contain plastic. It is a product that does not burn and, therefore, improves the safety of the single-seaters. It is applied cold so it does not need any oven cycles, also shortening the application times “.
Ferrari and Red Bull in battle in Jeddah: both F1 cars are overweight
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Looking at the bodywork of current single-seaters, the weight savings could be slightly less than a kilo on a car like the Ferrari F1-75 which has no clear lens, but definitely higher on a Red Bull RB18. And why does no one take advantage of these opportunities that the market offers? Is the money saving staggering at a ratio of one to ten, or is the cost issue just throwing sand in the eye?
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