Drivers unhappy with weight rules

Toro Rosso’s two youngsters Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen cannot hide their disappointment about constraints F1 drivers have to follow in a bid to keep their weight at minimum. They cannot accept the extremities of their diets.

As time passes, perfection gets more and more important in F1. The time for tiny margins is ominous and drivers are forced to contribute to that not just with their driving abilities, but also with losing weight.

Since the introduction of the V6 Hybrid engines, the room for ballast was reduced considerably, with teams asking their drivers to lose more weight to compensate.

Carlos Sainz is disappointed by the situation, and said to Reuters: “How can you expect from a driver to perform at his best level when he has to lose three or four kilo?”

“It s bit drastic. Probably we have to discuss it. I heard really bad stories from Jean-Eric Vergne about what he had to do.”

During 2014, Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne has been transported to hospital due to exhaustion, caused by the extreme diets drivers are on in an attempt to lose weight, while still training had to stay fit.

Max Verstappen agrees with his team-mate.

“It is not the right way. We are happy to be fit and slim, it is our job. However, it is not our task to be extremely skinny.”

“When you do training, it means muscles which are weight. I am 68 or 69. It is pretty hard by a height of 1,8 m,” concluded the young Dutchman.

Despite repeated questions by drivers, and suggestions that Formula One might introduce a ballasted seat so that driver and seat together weight the same in every car, nothing has changed yet.