Most of us knew this all along. The cars need to get 150kg lighter, smaller, and cut down on the aero. Kimi has a say as well. Hamilton: I don't understand why F1 cars are getting heavier Mercedes Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton says he does not understand why F1 is letting cars get continually heavier while also trying to improve sustainability. Image Unavailable, Please Login F1’s new generation of cars in 2022 are set to be the heaviest ever, with the minimum car weight currently set at a whopping 790kg. The move to heavier turbo hybrid powerunits from 2014, allied to improved safety structures and the arrival of the Halo, have contributed to a big hike over the years. From around 640kg at the end of the V8 era, the cars went past 700kg in 2016 and are now nudging 750kg. The extra bulk that is carried around has contributed to cars being less nimble, and is believed to be a contributing factor in why venues like Monaco no longer appear particular well suited to F1 machinery. For seven-time world champion Hamilton, the extra weight also seems to go against a push by the wider world for cars to get lighter in a bid to use less energy. “I don’t understand why we’re going heavier,” he said. “I don’t understand particularly why we go heavier when there’s all this talk about being more sustainable – just as the sport is going in that direction. “By going heavier and heavier and heavier, you’re using more and more energy. So that feels that’s not necessarily in the right direction or in the thought process.” As well as cars being heavier, they are also much bigger in dimension compared to previous years. Hamilton says the whole feel of the cars has changed hugely since he started in F1 in 2007. “The lighter cars were more nimble, were nowhere near as big, naturally, and so racing, manoeuvring the car, was better,” he said. “On the tracks we’re going to, they’re getting wider. In Baku it’s quite wide in places and of course it’s narrow in other places. “Monaco was always relatively impossible to pass, but now the cars are so big that it’s too big for the track. And, as I said, as we get heavier and heavier, that’s more energy we’ve got to dissipate – bigger brakes, more brake dust, more fuel to get you to the locations. “I don’t fully understand it.” Alfa Romeo veteran Kimi Raikkonen says the change in car weight since he started in F1 in 2001 has never been a shock, as it has happened gradually. However, the 2007 world champion says that it is only when looking back in the history books that the scale of the change hits home. “It’s a lot when you see the old cars next to this year’s cars or even the last year’s cars,” he explained. “Some years it’s, ‘How small they look!’ So, obviously we are not here to design. “I think if we still did race the mid-2000s or whatever year you want to pick cars, it wouldn’t make any difference to racing. It just wastes an awful lot of money on the way to get to here and nothing else has changed.” https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/hamilton-i-dont-understand-why-f1-cars-are-getting-heavier/6560699/
Fully agree with his Lewisness here. One wonders what the absolute morons who dream up the F1 rules are smoking.
Hamilton is spot on, anyone see the picture posted on line of the 2008 McLaren next to the 2021? Absolutely gigantic in comparison.
Yep There's a thread I posted of Alonso running the Renault R25 at Yas Marina in 2020(???) and there's a pic of the R25 next to RS20.....quite the difference. Good thread too.
It's strange to consider that in pre-war times, the technical rules for GP cars were very liberal, almost "formula libre", but imposed a maximum weight, Now technical rules for F1 are very restrictive but impose a minimum weight. The ideal must be in between.
Now if you were to put 312T besides both of them you would see that the cars at nearly twice as long as they were in the early 1970s.
Minimum weight was adopted as a safety move. Maximum weight was imposed to keep engine size and on-board gasoline in check.
I am not sure if fuel was taken in consideration when the cars were weighted pre-war. I think I read in "Racing with the Silver Arrows" that the 750kg maximum was dry weigh and without the tyres ! But cars had crude and heavy chassis, V12 or V16 engines up to 6 liters, etc... Now F1 cars have many composite components, carbon fiber chassis, body, also suspension parts which are very light. The engines are only 1.5 liters V6, with alloy casings, same for the gearbox thanks to modern foundry technology. It makes you wonder where all that weight goes, and if F1 shouldn't address that
Pretty sure the engine blocks are machined out of forged billet aluminum. Heads and Valve covers could be cast. Gear boxes have moved to carbon fiber with a few forged aluminum structural components.
That renault, running for from an ideal setup and pace, was running only a few seconds a lap slower on tyres it wasn't developed for, than the current cars with all their tech, 15+ years of aerdynamic knowledge and so on. Also much wider and lower front wings and wider rear wings. Even though todays cars are impressive, that more puts into perspective just how impressive those cars where!
Alonso ran the R25 on red banded tires at night and did a 1:19 and change almost equaling Lewis's 2019 fastest lap time in the race....no DRS....yeah 15+ years later....impressive. F1 cars are getting heavier and heavier(battery packs are not light)....where's the tech to get these cars lighter???
If the FIA allowed the minimal weight to be lower (say 650kg) for next year, the engineers would take up the challenge with gusto and some technologies could come out of the woodwork! I have no fear of that.
Fragile carbon fibre wings are crap. They cause punctures and time delay race restarts. Alluminium wings would be a vast improvement !!
Making the front wing a lot narrower will be a good start as well. No wider than the inside of front tyre.... IIRC around 1994 F1 cars weighed as little as 505kg without fuel...!
No complaint with what he’s saying. I believe he is pretty accurate, actually. I think the “goat” talk in all sports is kind of useless. Things are so different from era-to-era. You have starts of their respective eras and that’s enough for me.
Get rid of the hybrids. Auto companies have now seen the hybrids are only limited in life to span between pure ICEs and pure battery powered cars. Just go back to ICEs and leave the hybrids out in the cold.
The only advantage of E-Fuels is that the carbon is in a cycle rather than once through (not counting dinosaur time period).
The batch they're ordering for 2022 is very small, hence the cost. I don't know to what scale the 2027 production is, Porsche only? Or more? The fuel is as clean or cleaner than EV all things considered. There is hope yet... FWIW Euro 95 (i.e. weak piss) in western Europe is already close to this price per liter, and that's todays prices. 2026 Efuel in vast quantities at 2 USD per liter will be of higher quality than Euro95 and much, much cleaner. Sounds like a win-win. EVangelicals can continue pretending to save the planet driving their glorified milkfloats, normal people can continue doing what they do and actually be cleaner than them!
