What Do The FIA And F1 Chief Have To Say About The Cars’ Weight?

It might be about the driver’s talent and unfailingly so. Questions like how fast can one go and how successfully can one drive an F1 car to its very limit definitely have a mighty say in deciding the eventual output of a Grand Prix.

Furthermore, it is, unfailingly, also be about the engineering prowess held by an F1 team. Furthermore, what also matters in deciding the eventual fate of a Grand Prix is the strategic calls teams make. But ultimately, all of it boils down to the capability of the machine- is it not?

And in the current context, a thing that can no longer be ignored is that the contemporary F1 cars are very heavy. A sport eternally wired and related to the talent of the driver, does after all lean heavily towards the aerodynamic functionality of an F1 car, a complicated tech at the end of the day.

And due to various permutations and combinations, the cars on the current F1 grid are on the heavier side, which ultimately puts an enormous pressure on the drivers. And while the how much should an ideal F1 car weigh has so often featured among the leading discussions held by F1 luminary in deciding the future direction of the sport, it doesn’t appear as though a lot of change is around the corner in the sport’s imminent future.

Though that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t take into consideration what the current F1 chiefs had to say about the size of the present lot of cars.

“Also the bigger wheels, they’re quite a bit heavier as well. So that for me goes in the wrong direction,” said the current defending world champion Max Verstappen when talking about the current weight of an F1 car.

Having said that, the famous flying Dutchman, now a double world champion was also asked if the sport could do anything at all at the moment about turning things around and making the F1 cars a bit lighter. But then, he had the following to say:

“When you jump back in an old car, you definitely feel the difference in how agile an old car was. Before 2010 they were even lighter, right? But I don’t know what we can do about turning it around.”

But that’s not all. There were key observations made towards the current weight of an F1 car by the current FIA chief, Mr. Ben Sulayem, whose response did actually suggest that the excessive weight problem of the car was, after all, addressed instead of the subject being shoved under the carpet.

He made the following reactions:

“We need a lighter car.”

It will be difficult to achieve, but everyone wants it.

And he would also go on to elaborate on the fundamental aspect behind why lighter F1 cars can go the distance in bringing about a lot of change. He’d add, “I come from motorsport where lighter cars are safer and don’t use as much fuel. So I’m applying pressure because I come from rallying, where there’s nothing worse than having a heavy car.”

That being said, ahead of the 2026 Formula 1 season, which still is at quite some distance in the future, Mr. Stefano Demonicali, the current F1 chief agreed on the weight aspect of the current F1 cars, observing them to be of a heavier nature. Among the points he recently discussed was that before the 2026 season begins, one good opportunity is to work towards lowering the overall car’s weight.