Red Bull’s chief designer has bemoaned the fluctuating weight limit for Formula 1 cars. Adrian Newey believes getting to a point where his team complies with the new limit for the 2022 season has been one of the biggest challenges they have faced in the construction of the RB18.
New rules have been brought in for the new season, with the aim of promoting closer racing and, potentially, upsetting the balance of power within the sport. Visually, the headlines include changes to the shapes of the front and rear wings, different sidepod designs and a switch to lower profile tyres.
One of the changes that cannot be seen by the naked eye, however, is the latest weight limit to be enforced for each car. To take into account the new parts needed for safety features, bigger rims and other design alterations, teams need to go higher than the old limit of 752kg.
The minimum weight has now gone up to 795kg, including both car and driver. That number is expected to rise by another three kilograms, however, after a series of meetings between team bosses who are concerned about the current number.
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Newey is one of those who admits it has been a difficult process for his team. Asked in an interview with RacingNews365 if he felt the new weight limit had been the biggest challenge of the off-season, he suggested that Red Bull are not the only ones who have had issues.
“Getting the cars to the weight limit, for a lot of the teams, is a big challenge, for sure,” he said. “You’ve got to remember that, very roughly speaking – it, of course, varies from circuit to circuit – but you’re talking roughly three-eighths of a second per 10 kilos.”
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He went on to suggest that heavier cars are a problem for Formula 1 when it comes to its drive to make the sport more sustainable. More weight means added drag, and makes the cars more difficult to stop.
This, Newey argues, is inefficient when it did not need to be the case. The Red Bull chief technical officer went on to suggest that the sport would have been better off moving in the other direction towards more lightweight cars which require less energy to move.
“The reality is you’ve now got cars that have an over 900-kilogram start-line weight, so you’re well into what used to be very heavy for sports cars,” he added. “In a few short years, the weight limit has gone from low 600kg, but carrying 30 or 40kg of ballast, to now cars that are 880kg, and we’re all working like mad to try and get to the [current] 795kg limit.
“So the cars have got bigger and heavier and, aerodynamically, not particularly efficient, lots of drag. I think it is a bit of a shame that Formula 1 has gone in that direction, because there’s the opportunity at the moment to go the opposite [way].”
Keyword: Red Bull chief feels let down by F1 officials on missed 'opportunity' with new regulations