After complaints from the teams: Just a few days before the start of the 2022 Formula 1 season, the racing series has raised the minimum weight of the cars slightly
Just days before the 2022 Formula One season opener in Bahrain, race series officials have decided to raise the minimum weight of Formula One cars slightly.
This is said to be a compromise solution. Some Formula 1 teams had spoken out in favour of a significant increase in the minimum weight. According to information from ‘auto motor und sport’, eight out of ten racing teams are clearly above the minimum weight with their new cars, some of them probably even in double figures. Only Alfa Romeo is well within the weight limit, while McLaren is close to the ideal.
Formula 1, on the other hand, was probably keen not to make too many concessions so that the minimum weight would not exceed the 800-kilogram mark. With the increase of three kilograms, they remain just under that mark.
And why three kilograms of all things? The increase is explained as follows: one kilogram for the new 18-inch wheels, which turned out to be slightly heavier than expected; one kilogram for the new wheel covers, which were not initially included in the calculations; one kilogram for the measures to contain the “porpoising” effect, which occurred during the tests in Barcelona.
The 2022 season opener will take place in March, directly following the second week of winter testing.
From a purely legal point of view, such a rule change would require the approval of eight of the ten teams, as well as the agreement of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) and Formula One.
Formula 1 cars have become heavier and heavier over the past decades, from 585 kilograms until 2008 to 690 kilograms in the 2014 season and 798 kilograms in 2022. From 2021 to 2022 alone, there was a weight increase of 46 kilograms.
