Where did 200lbs of weight come from?

[PlatinumZealot]

It just hit me that Formula 1 cars in 2015 will be over 200lbs heavier than cars of recent times. The minimum weight for a F1 car in 2015 is 702 kg. I have not thought too deeply about it yet so I'm putting this question out there to our resident experts. 100kg is alotta weight! Where does all this weight come from?

[siwillems]

Energy recovery systems, turbo, battery's for energy recovery system, probably a few more but these would be the biggest culprits I would think

[siwillems]

And also extra cooling, turbo engine run hotter so extra cooling would bring some weight penalty of one sort or another imao

[Blanchimont]

yes, green ideology is the main driver behind the weight gain. we need to think of the children, don't we?
a good reason for heavier cars are stricter tests, both dynamic and static, what makes the survival cell and the crash structures heavier.

[hollus]

Does anybody have an estimation of the weight budget of a current or at least 201x F1 car?

[PlatinumZealot]

Energy recovery systems, turbo, battery's for energy recovery system, probably a few more but these would be the biggest culprits I would think

Power unit is now a minimum of 145kg right? Battery is now min 20kg max 25kg. What were the weight of the old V8's?

[Tim.Wright]

The minimum weight was raised when the energy systems were introduced to basically force the teams into running them.

They are not quite the performance gain that they are marketed as.

[FW17]

2013 car

Chassis
2.4 liter engine
80 hp KERS
10 kg battery (estimate)
---------------------------------
640 kgs


2014 car
Chassis
1.6 liter engine
160 hp KERS - additional 1kg/8hp = 10kgs
160 hp HERS - additional 1kg/8hp=20kgs
Battery 20-25kgs - additional 10-15 kgs
Turbo 10 kgs
----------------------------------
640 kgs + additional weight 50 -55 kgs

[godlameroso]

2013 car

Chassis
2.4 liter engine
80 hp KERS
10 kg battery (estimate)
---------------------------------
640 kgs


2014 car
Chassis
1.6 liter engine
160 hp KERS - additional 1kg/8hp = 10kgs
160 hp HERS - additional 1kg/8hp=20kgs
Battery 20-25kgs - additional 10-15 kgs
Turbo 10 kgs
----------------------------------
640 kgs + additional weight 50 -55 kgs

I thought the entire power unit weighed 145kg, including mgu-k and mgu-h, but not including the energy store. In any case I think they should have left the minimum weight of last year's cars. 693kg iirc. Surely by the end of 2014 a lot of the cars could meet minimum weight and still have room to play with ballast. I'd imagine 2015 chassis are even lighter as teams optimize their designs based on knowledge of the limits of packaging learned from 2014.

[ME4ME]

Indeed, but minimum weight was increased mainly for the drivers so they don't have to suffer being underweight. But I think teams will still push their drivers to be ultra lean, so they can place balast weights low down in the chassi. To me the FIA's solution seems totally useless, and they should have gone for a set driver+seat+helmet weight, and lower the minimum car weight. Say for example: 90 kg for seat+driver+helmet .. and 670 kg for car incl driver and obviously 1L fuel sample. Pushing technology is what F1 is all about. (I do however see the point of not pushing this too far, because of finacial reasons)

[Belatti]

Cars are almost 200Kg heavier than 25 years ago! The same goes with street cars. Look at a VW golf fro phase I to V or a BMW M3...

There are many reasons why and many reasons I do not completely agree with

[Facts Only]

The min weight was also increased in 2013 for the steel belted tyres (compared to the kevlar belted tyres) and there was all the bitching about larger drivers being penalised as teams couldn't make the min weights with larger drivers.

[Blanchimont]

F1fanatic has a nice overview on this: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2013/08/20/w ... g-heavier/

Note that the increase from 1994 to 1995 wasn't as big as the graph might suggest, as
"By 1995 it had jumped up by almost 100kg due to a change in how the rule was enforced: for the first time the minimum weight limit referred to a car plus its driver."

Monocoque weight is estimated by Gary Anderson as ~50kg( http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/formula1/20847718 ) and for each wheel(tyre+rim) one can assume about 15kg( http://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewto ... 07#p394507 ).

[J.A.W.]

Complexity costs.. in weight.. as well as gold.. ( an inevitable result of hidebound/technically hypocritical reg's - IMO)..