Driver weight problems.

[garycat]

Since talented but tall drivers are being penalised, one driver passed out during a conference and all of them are complaining about how much weight they have had to lose - isn't there a solution to this unfairness?

I the only thing I can think of is that there is a "standard weight" e.g. 70Kg for the driver and any drivers weighing less are made up to this weight with ballast added to the back and base of their fitted seat. This prevents the team adding ballast where is is most beneficial to the car.

[Crafty_]

Thing is, single seaters have always been the same - the lighter you are the better. I can remember Berger having the double whammy of being heavier than most but also being tall and his helmet blocking the airbox, he (and others) used to lean their head to one side on the straights.

Car & driver min weight went from 642kg to 691kg this year, engine 95 to 155kg, so there is an 11kg deficit. I guess this is where the crunch point is this year.

They are proposing a increase of 10kg for 2015, I wonder if they will bring that forwards if enough noise is made about it.

[garycat]

But if the driver and car are always weighed together, the team will want the driver to lose as much weight as possible so they can make up the weight in the car, no matter what the weight limit is.

What they need to do is weigh the car and driver separately.

[Crafty_]

yep, but the 2015 increase basically puts them back to where they have been for some years, it'd be easy to bring forwards if they felt there was a need.

To my knowledge there is no major series that weighs car and driver separately.

[Walford]

72KG should be min for drive and seat

[kambites]

F1 is hardly unique, or even unusual, as a sport in favouring competitors of a particular build/height/whatever. In fact it's hard to think of many that don't.

[Walford]

kambites said:

F1 is hardly unique, or even unusual, as a sport in favouring competitors of a particular build/height/whatever. In fact it's hard to think of many that don't.

Fishing, Darts, Chess, and dwaft tossing

[angrymoby]

Football, unless you're absolutely determined to be a Goal Keeper

[Studio117]

I can't imagine one of the klitschko brothers winning the grand national. But we don't want motorsports to turn Into a sport for midgets.

[angrymoby]

& it's pretty easy to fix, as stated above- a minimum driver plus seat weight could be easily implemented ...put a pocket in the back of the seat for ballast (for CoG) & job's jobbed. But the teams with jockey drivers would veto that ...although the FIA can introduce anything if it's on 'safety grounds' ...which might explained an 'alleged' driver fainting

Edited by angrymoby on Friday 4th April 20:58

[Walford]

Problem is if they fix it now and vetel is nowhere, they look stupid, all them pots cuz he was 10kg lighter than Webber

[mollytherocker]

Christian Horner has said that there should be a minimum drivers weight.

'We have developed an accurate weighing machine that is even more accurate than the FIA one used in parc ferme. We are prepared to supply all of the other teams with this technology as we just want to help'.

[Mr_Thyroid]

Should be nearer 75-80kg. 70 including kit will be difficult to achieve for any driver 6ft or more.

They probably have lighter kit than me but I am 6ft and can only achieve 70kg if I am pretty much dead-on what those charts say is my safe minimum weight.

[garycat]

Crafty_ said:

To my knowledge there is no major series that weighs car and driver separately.

I wonder why that is? Weighing separately would mean that the technology of the car and the talent of the driver is paramount.

As it is, the fastest combo are the ones (un)lucky enough to have been born a shortarse.

[Crafty_]

Just caught an interview with Hulkenberg on this. He said that he didn't think the situation had changed much over the past 3-4 years and that as the he's been at his minimum weight for some time but other drivers apparently were not and had therefore been losing weight. He admitted to nipping out to a McDonalds in Malaysia!

[airbusA346]

"Jean-Eric Vergne has admitted he was hospitalised recently amid an extreme weight-loss regime for the 2014 season."

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/vergne-hospitali...

[hairyben]

Walford said:

Problem is if they fix it now and vetel is nowhere, they look stupid, all them pots cuz he was 10kg lighter than Webber

Problem there is he has this weight advantage right now and isn't exactly showing much for it- isn't DR a bigger boy than him?

[Walford]

hairyben said:

Walford said:

Problem is if they fix it now and vetel is nowhere, they look stupid, all them pots cuz he was 10kg lighter than Webber

Problem there is he has this weight advantage right now and isn't exactly showing much for it- isn't DR a bigger boy than him?

The movable balast, that was his advantage over webber gave him the last 0.1 %
were the RB is now they got much bigger things to sort, could be 6 months before they get back to this level of fine tuning

[jimbobsimmonds]

Walford said:

hairyben said:

Walford said:

Problem is if they fix it now and vetel is nowhere, they look stupid, all them pots cuz he was 10kg lighter than Webber

Problem there is he has this weight advantage right now and isn't exactly showing much for it- isn't DR a bigger boy than him?

The movable balast, that was his advantage over webber gave him the last 0.1 %
were the RB is now they got much bigger things to sort, could be 6 months before they get back to this level of fine tuning

Could they not mandate that seat + driver must weigh say 80kgs with any balast being carried behind the driver in the back of the seat (as close to a man's CoG as possible) to equalise this?

Weight's detriment to performance must be even worse in the lower formulas/karting. They must have had to deal with this all the way through their motorsport career or is it more balanced lower down?

I seem to recally looking into karting once and being shocked that the "heavyweight" category for Rotax had the drivers only around 84kgs. Hardly massive!

[Fonz]

Crafty_ said:

To my knowledge there is no major series that weighs car and driver separately.

IIRC the IRL used to weigh just the car. Some of the drivers complained that this gave drivers such as Danica Patrick an unfair advantage over them as she was so light, but that as they say is another story…