How F1 Will Try to Limit the Impact of Driver Weight
With the introduction of the HALO on the 2018 F1 cars, the FIA is set to impose a minimum weight of 80 kilos for the driver and their seat for 2019.
If in 2017 the FIA allowed the different F1 teams a maximum weight of 728 kg per single-seater, the introduction of the HALO for 2018 made it necessary to revise this limit to 734 kg, an additional 6 kilos.
However, as Andy Green, technical director of Sahara Force India, points out to our colleagues at Motorsport: « I think the total weight of the installation is around 14 or 15 kilos. The Halo is about nine kilos, and there are six kilos of pillars, with all the supports. The structure involved in mounting the Halo is phenomenal, with a lot of carbon and mechanical parts. ».
It is to be feared that with this weight addition exceeding the re-evaluated limit, drivers may be forced to follow strict diets to compensate for the weight and limit the loss of competitiveness of the single-seaters.
The FIA is therefore on track to impose a minimum weight of 80 kilograms for the driver and their seat for 2019, in order to avoid a weight race that could endanger the health of the drivers and affect their endurance during a demanding Grand Prix weekend.
The lightweight drivers will therefore be provided with ballast to reach this weight. This element, integrated by default under the pilot’s seat, is nonetheless likely to provide a slight advantage in terms of center of gravity. A device will therefore be studied to distribute this additional imposed weight fairly so as not to advantage a small pilot.
In the relentless race for weight and the continuous development of the upcoming HALO, engineers will therefore need to continue focusing solely on the superfluous grams of the single-seaters.
