Due to the new rules in Formula 1, which have introduced big wheels and the cars have also become a bit longer, the racing cars have become heavier and many teams are struggling to get closer to the minimum weight of 798 kilos. “When you’re overweight, you do everything you can to take it off and every little bit helps,” said McLaren manager Zak Brown.
According to Alfa Romeo team manager Beat Zehnder, the paint on a Formula 1 car weighs about 6 kilograms.
Red Bull, the team of world champion Max Verstappen, also suffers from overweight. The racing stable had installed new lightweight parts for the race in Imola and, according to top advisor Helmut Marko, these contributed to the dominant victory of the Dutchman. “The updates have all worked well,” he told Motorsport.com. “The car has ‘lost weight’, but we are still above the minimum weight. We still have work to do in that area, but that is normal. With Weight Watchers you don’t lose all the weight at once.”