Ahead of the 2022 Formula One campaign, teams have struggled to design their new challengers on minimum weight despite the fact that the limit was increased for the new championship. The minimum weight for a Formula 1 car in 2022 has risen from 752kg last year to 790kg but despite the hefty 38kg increase, it seems that most teams are still encountering some issues in this regard, as they attempt to maximize their performance.
Despite the fact that the new cars are on average a few centimeters shorter compared to the previous ones, the extra weight of the new wheel corners must be considered, including rims, new tires and braking systems, as well as a further increase due to more severe FIA crash tests which count, according to one team, for over 50% of the increase.
795 (kilograms), this is the magic number contested by the teams during the three days of testing in Barcelona. Especially from Red Bull, the most overweight top team who, however, at Montmelo did not seem to suffer too much in terms of performance (at least that’s what Ferrari believe based on the data gathered and analyzed in Maranello).
A request to raise the minimum weight was made by the teams, in the name of investments. Looking for a significant reduction in weight means investing in developments and therefore costs. And it is not the best historical moment to start a battle on this field, given the presence of the strict budget cap.
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The exception is Alfa Romeo: with its 2022 Formula 1 project, Alfa Romeo has focused heavily on the lightest weight possible for the C42, unfortunately paying in terms of floor reliability due to the annoying but unplanned phenomenon of aerodynamic bouncing. The car driven by Bottas and Zhou will also have to gain weight by the first race, but at the same time the men led by Frederic Vasseur do not want to give the other teams an advantage. And since to change the minimum weight you need the approval of at least eight out of ten teams, for now everything has remained frozen. There will be more discussions again in Bahrain during the second pre-season testing session.
In Ferrari, despite the fact that they are also overweight, the Maranello team’s technicians are not too worried about the issue and tend to minimize everything, aware that an increase would lead to a greater advantage for the competitors’ cars rather than the F1-75, according to information gathered by formu1a.uno.
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