The new single-seaters of 2022 exceed 900 kg. with a full fuel tank, which has caused a significant deterioration in vehicle dynamics. Some teams suffer from this drama especially.
The 2022 season of Formula 1 It has brought us cars completely different from the previous ones and everything indicates that they will be able to improve the show in the sense that the drivers can follow each other more closely and for longer.
However, in the first race held in Bahrain the cars were more slow to react and clumsy in slow cornerssomething that is propitiated by the notable increase in weight this year.
Not in vain, the cars have gone from having to meet a minimum weight of 752 kg. at 798kg. Figure that, with more than 100 kg. in the fuel tank at the beginning of the race it makes them exceed 900 kg.
Overweight
But this is not what most worries the teams, since practically none have been able to meet the objective of reaching that minimum weight and even some cars have more than 10kg overweight.
This is because the new tires are larger and heavier, and security requirements are stricter this year, which has forced to incorporate more carbon fiber to the chassis.
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Andrew Green, technical director of Aston Martin, points out that “weight is a big, big problem. These cars are heavy by regulation and getting to that weight is a challenge. We checked the whole car from front to back and we removed the paint where we could. I think in total we saved about 350 grams».
McLaren is another of the teams that has removed paint from its car to reduce the weight of the car. In recent years, matt paint had been imposed to lighten, but now it is beginning to prevail leave the carbon fiber unpainted.
Several tenths per turn
Weight is a significant lap time deficit and the teams work to gain performance without having to improve aerodynamics or the engine, simply by shedding weight on the car.
Toto Wolff acknowledges that «Red Bull and ourselves are probably the most overweight we are. And then there are some who are at or just above weight.”
The director of Mercedes says that “that’s a big advantage or disadvantage in lap time. But you have to be smart about it. Some have made the decision to go light and are benefiting from that right now. I think there is definitely room to improve and remove some of the parts that we have on the car that are too heavy.”
Paul Monaghan, Red Bull engineer, states that “it is difficult to get these cars under the weight limit and the more they evolve the more complicated it is. It takes some effort to get that weight back on. Everyone is fighting the same battle.”
According to various information from the paddock, Alfa Romeo is the team that has achieved a lighter careven being below the minimum weight, which allows the Italian-Swiss team to play with weights to improve the dynamics of the single-seater.
Source: motorsport.com