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The 2023 Formula One Season

Space is the Place said:
Aren't they 800kg no instead of 600kg and much bigger dimension wise?
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1995 595 kg
2009 605 kg Optional KERS weight 30kg... 20kg of which to fit within existing ballast provision?
2010 620 kg
2013 642 kg Last year of V8 engines
2014 691 kg First year of hybrid V6 engines
2015 702 kg Adjustment for second hybrid year
2017 728 kg Wider wheels and tyres
2018 734 kg Halo introduced
2019 743 kg 80kg driver/seat allowance; halo 'correction'; new wing regulations; rear wing
lights
2020 746 kg Agreed-upon adjustment, plus second fuel flow meter
2021 768 kg New rules, including heavier standard parts
 
I think that the actual minimum weights have been pretty well covered by others and especially Cutting42.

What I would say is that Darmok is spot on re the removing of refuelling making the cars longer and heavier, the move to the hybrids did cause a large increase in weight, safety has resulted in gradually increasing mass over the years and more optimal aero has resulted in wheelbases getting longer and hence the cars heavier.

Whilst there were many teams that were way over the weight limit at the start of 2022 (Sauber was on the weight limit and that was the main reason why they were much quicker than expected for the first half of 2022), I can say some of us older engineers were pretty shocked by this. Anyone who worked for me had the important of mass hammered home as F=MA is very important for racing car performance, but seemingly got forgotten by many teams. For example the Honda in 2004 had 100kg of ballast (i.e. in theory could have been 100kg below the weight limit and still passed all the safety tests). That allowed the cars weight distribution to be tuned with the aero balance and allowed a lower centre of gravity height and hence greater cornering potential.
 
For BRM that may've been the weight of the H16 engine alone!;)

Edit the engine weight started at 515lbs but got lighter (not as bits flew off!).
 
In the really olden days of 1930's GP cars had a MAXIMUM weight of 750 kilos. The idea was the the tiny weight would limit how powerful the engines could. It turned out to be wrong...
 
RJohan said:
In the really olden days of 1930's GP cars had a MAXIMUM weight of 750 kilos. The idea was the the tiny weight would limit how powerful the engines could. It turned out to be wrong...
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Yep. Ultralight exotic materials jump into the formula, light reciprocating/rotating engine parts reduce weight and add power. A designer’s dream situation.
 
The excitement is building, Lance Stroll will make the first GP it seems :D

The cynic in me always felt sitting Vettel along side him made sense to Team Stroll: 1) lots of experience to bring to the team; 2) no longer as fast/ruthless as he once was allowing Jr to beat a World Champ in the same car and boost his ego.

I now accept that was wrong. It didn't really work out that way with Vettel beating Stroll (I would suggest) even as Vettel wound down and out of F1.

Then the hiring Alonso to sit along side Stroll: Alonso meets the criteria for 1); but I really doubt Alonso meets the criteria for 2) in any meaningful way.

Can Stroll get vaguely close to EDIT: Alonso seems to me to be a more sensible question than can he beat him?
 
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nobeone said:
Can Stroll get vaguely close to Vettel seems to me to be a more sensible question than can he beat him?
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Do you mean can Stroll get close to Alonso? as he can't get close to Vettel being that he is probably going to be at home on his couch eating a massive bag of crisps and drinking a beer.

There was an interesting watch on F1 TV today , one of the Mercedes engineers was explaining all of the little nuances of the build on their car this year, and they did a side by side comparison of the other teams cars. Ferrari again certainly looks the stand out from a visual design perspective.

Unless Mercedes are sandbagging, early performance reports certainly aren't setting the track alight!
 
flutteringwow said:
Do you mean can Stroll get close to Alonso? as he can't get close to Vettel being that he is probably going to be at home on his couch eating a massive bag of crisps and drinking a beer.
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Exactly, can he get close to Alonso (sigh, I even re-read it before I posted, thanks for spotting the SNAFU, edited now so others don't have to suffer my stupidity), I like the idea of Vettel eating a massive bag of crisps and drinking a beer rather than keeping fit, makes me feel more human somehow as I certainly will be eating a massive bag of crisps and drinking a beer while watching.
 
nobeone said:
Exactly, can he get close to Alonso (sigh, I even re-read it before I posted, thanks for spotting the SNAFU, edited now so others don't have to suffer my stupidity), I like the idea of Vettel eating a massive bag of crisps and drinking a beer rather than keeping fit, makes me feel more human somehow as I certainly will be eating a massive bag of crisps and drinking a beer while watching.
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I don't think Stroll has a chance of beating Alonso personally, I think Alonso is now in that groove of being so experienced but so relaxed as it literally doesn't matter to him what he does, he just goes out there, hammers it, has fun and whatever happens happens, Stroll still needs to prove himself which can often take away the fluidity of his drive.

Aston Martins opening times seem pretty good too, I would love it if Alonso is up there in the battle for the front.

You know Vettel wont even be watching and will be out on a jetski somewhere exotic with his millions in the bank :)
 
Looks like Mercedes have again made the same mistake of keeping a similar shape to last years poor car . They could not eat humble pie , Red Bull design = Fast , copy it like a lot other teams clearly not on the menu . I just hope they can at least be competitive at all tracks this year , Red Bull dominance again not very entertaining and Horner will grow an even bigger head !
 
Nothing last forever (as far as Mercedes are concerned) and reading Ian's posts last year pinpointed the reason why the changes within structure & staff Mercedes have partly resulted in them loosing their dominance it seems. Listening to Lewis talk about the car today they seem to be on the back foot again, which is frustrating.

Last season was dominated by Redbull and while exciting in parts, wasn't anywhere close to the exceptional battle 2021 was. Newey et al have really designed a great car and obviously you've got Max too (one of Flutterings favorite drivers!) who is an exceptional talent and much more capable/consistent than Perez.
Lets hope there's another Team that can challenge them this season.

It'll be interesting to see how qualifying pans out and what the race brings. That Alonso is up there in FP2 is very exciting, to see arguably one of the greatest driver back at the front is fantastic.
 
Credit to Red Bull on the job they are doing, it would be nice to see others making a contest of it but early signs are not great.
 
Max vs Alonso could be juicy if it becomes a regular thing. Nando’s expert car placement vs Max’s frustration…
 
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