Quote:
Originally Posted by Adam43
The weight limit may have originally been to encourage safety, but, as you say, due to crash testing that is less important. It encourages reliability and cost saving a little too, for similar reasons.
What it does do is limit the performance gain due to weight loss. Yes, you still want to reduce weight to then be able to put the weight where you want, but it isn't as advantageous as simply losing the weight from a lap time point of view. As such retaining the weight limit encourages a closer field by exaggerating the diminishing returns from spending on weight saving.
|
Originally teams manufacture a car to finish a race. In past decade the FIA introduced regulations enforcing a certain longevity for some components, such as the engine and gearbox. I fail to see how the minimum weight change this any respect and is thus a necessary piece of legislation.
It does not reduce costs either. If teams cannot spend their money on weight reduction, then they will use it for other purposes. Recently Ron Dennis said quite rightly that teams will spend whatever money they have.
The minimum weight fits in the whole idea that more stringent regulations in general and enforced durability, standardization, homologation and equalization in particular are the rights answer for performance limitations and cost savings. But despite the fact that such regulations have been introduced since the two thousands, budgets were reduced until the outbreak of the credit crisis.
This is far from illogical, as strict regulations provide an absolute point of perfection and teams are forced to work towards the same solution. History provides indications that the whole idea stated above is indeed incorrect. With the more liberal engine regulations in the eighties BMW could win races and become world champion with turbo engines that were not only production-based but even used for production cars. With more liberal bodywork regulations Colin Chapman could find an answer to Ferrari getting the upper hand because of their powerful engine and introduced a radical new underbody design, called ground effects.
The solutions stated above are examples of what is possible with more liberal regulations and what is outlawed under the current regime. Nowadays teams have to work towards the same point of perfection, with using an increasing amount of resources as a necessity to get or stay ahead.