Driver Weight Parity - Time to Introduce

[BSchneiderFan]

It does seem unfair to penalise taller drivers - Webber, Hülkenberg, before them Doornbos, Wilson - for something they can't do anything about.

[wnut]

Mansell's take, It's discrimination!

http://www.sportsfan.com.au/weight-l...Mansell_191013

[S14]

Originally Posted by Marbot

It shouldn't surprise anyone that several jockey's are keeping an eye on the outcome of this matter.

Android F1 drivers....that's my solution.

"Because when performance matters, Droid does."

[jedrinck]

It has been my understanding that the cars are built a lot lighter than the weight limit and that all of them carry ballast so they are all at the same minimum weight. Is that not the case any more? I thought the advantage of a lighter driver was merely the ability to place more ballast low down resulting in a lower center of gravity compared to a heavier driver.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by jedrinck

It has been my understanding that the cars are built a lot lighter than the weight limit and that all of them carry ballast so they are all at the same minimum weight. Is that not the case any more? I thought the advantage of a lighter driver was merely the ability to place more ballast low down resulting in a lower center of gravity compared to a heavier driver.

With the new regulations for 2014, turbos and increased KERS capacity, apparently means that the cars will no longer be under the minimum weight, and the lighter drivers will be advantaged. Some are saying that a 10 kg driver weight difference will result in a 4 tenths of a second difference in lap time!

[wnut]

Driver size and weight packaging - straight from the horses mouth; Adrian Newey on selecting Daniel Ricciardo, an interesting insight!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHDIj2rMu8Q

[miatanut]

Originally Posted by Marbot

Rumour has it that Vettel has freed up some space in his body by removing a few of his vital organs, muscles, etc, and has replaced them with bags of helium. It's also rumoured that his bones are now the same kind that birds have and the hollow spaces in them are also filled with helium.

When asked about the legality of this, Christian Horner replied that, "Vettel takes his competitivity very seriously and that it's no laughing matter."

Some say...

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by miatanut

Some say...

........that next season he will be minus a left leg as right foot braking will be more effective in the new cars.

[321Go]

Alonso, Massa and Mercedes were very much against raising the weight limit during the GPDA meeting a few days ago.

http://speedblog.speed.com/speed/for...weight-change/

[wnut]

Originally Posted by 321Go

Alonso, Massa and Mercedes were very much against raising the weight limit during the GPDA meeting a few days ago.

http://speedblog.speed.com/speed/for...weight-change/

Two smallest lightest drivers on the grid want to keep their advantage! No surprise there! (I don't believe the weight posted for Vettel.)

Still he is probably at the lighter end of the spectrum:

"Intriguingly one of those keen for the change to go through was Sebastian Vettel, who freely admitted that he has had an advantage over Mark Webber for the past few seasons."

And Mercedes blocking a 10 kg weight increase for the drivers ....

Clearly the driver weight is a bigger issue than its made out to be!

Time to bin power steering!

[Pingguest]

I fail to see why the minimum weight should be raised further. Driver weight parity is nonsense; the drivers body weight did count for the total minimum weight no earlier than 1995 and before that nobody complained.

[wnut]

Driver weight parity rules in Indycar

14.3.2. Driver Equivalency Weight –

INDYCAR shall

determine the additional Driver Equivalency Weight

required and shall notify each Entrant by bulletin. The

Driver Equivalency Weight must be installed and secured

in the designed location forward of the seatback as per

the following illustration. The Driver Equivalency Weight

must be a hard dense metal. Violation of this Rule

14.3.2 may result in a minimum $100,000 monetary fine

and/or such other penalties as INDYCAR shall deem

appropriate.

14.3.2.1.

Driver Equivalency Weight will be required

to bring the combined weight of Driver and driver

ballast to 185lbs. The Driver ballast weight tolerance

is - 0 to + 1.00lbs. INDYCAR reserves the right to

weigh any Driver at any time and adjust driver

ballast accordingly.

From

https://hardcards.indycar.com/Resour..._RULE_BOOK.pdf

[wnut]

This is just plain wrong - unsporting!

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/30/sp...vers.html?_r=1&

[wolfhound]

Originally Posted by wnut

This is just plain wrong - unsporting!

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/30/sp...ers.html?_r=1&

They fail to mention that the minimum weight includes the driver. In the old days the driver weight was excluded making it much more difficult for the larger driver.
Up to last year the teams had no major problem with larger drivers but in 2014 they are having difficulty reaching the minimum weight with all the extra bits needed for the new regs.

[wnut]

Ideal weight that they want Hulkenberg at:

62 kg!

[Tucky]

It's turning from the world driver's championship to the world dieter's championship

[wnut]

Originally Posted by Tucky

It's turning from the world driver's championship to the world dieter's championship

Button just looks plain sick!

There must be some sort of health and safety issue involved here, a man with so few reserves left in his system will have impaired stamina and concentration, it will also affect their resistance to injury in an accident and their chances of recovery from injury.

[OZ_HCR32]

Sutil looked bone thin as well. It seems ratehr easy to have a driver and his moulded seat a weight of 80-85kgs. That way the mass is carried in the same position for all cars and teams, Its silly that a very talkented guy who is 78kgs has to carry the disadvantage of bieng 16kgs heavier than another.

In the days where racing wasnt to close, different engines and fuel consumptions etc it was another grey area. Now with the respective pace of so many cars you cant give away that sort of advantage

[wnut]

Now we have drivers dehydrating themselves to save weight for qualifying!

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns27642.html

In a dehydrated state the driver has less fluid surrounding his brain, and a far greater risk of brain injury in a crash!

Martin Brundle mentioned that one of the drivers passed out during a press conference in Malaysia, apparently as a result of dieting and low blood sugar, what is going to happen if this occurs during a race? Brundle refused to name the driver, does anyone know who it was?

I know from my point of view, but this is a serious and unfair situation, just plain ridiculous!

Burns my bits, this does - more band members required!

[aki13]

I think it could be a good idea.

I mean give the drivers a set weight slightly over the heaviest drivers weight so he is not at a disadvantage then give the cars a minimum weight with that set weight added on. i.e make a 600kg car and added set driver weight to that.

Seems wrong the lengths that the drivers have to go to inorder to race.

[Adam43]

Why didn't drivers do these unhealthy things before their was a combined weight limit. It was even more important then?

[Teretonga]

Originally Posted by Adam43

Why didn't drivers do these unhealthy things before their was a combined weight limit. It was even more important then?

Because we have a sport now where competitive advantage is measured in minute fractions, down to the last gram of fuel, the last gram of fuel flow and the last 25 rpm, and the last 50grams of excess weight. It is all translated to the last 1/1000th of a second in advantage or loss in lap time so of course if your weight makes a contribution. So it is hardly surprising that fit healthy boys starve themselves like an anorexic model in order to gain that extra 1/10th of a second between them and the boy next door.

The truth is there may be another 50, 100, or 150, young men, and women, who could drive F1 cars faster than half to 75% of our F1 field but will never have the opportunity because of the convoluted way our rules are bound up and written. They direct their efforts into other forms of motorsport that provide other opportunities or forsake the sport altogether and do things that are more productive and even-handed than F1

[Adam43]

First paragraph: yes.

Second paragraph. The solution to this needs a more convoluted rule to allow for the different weights.
We had weight if car. Simple.
Now we have weight plus driver. More convoluted.
We need car weight and driver plus ballast/seat/defined position weight. Very convoluted.

A lot of these rules become convoluted due to the demands placed upon the sport.

[Teretonga]

Originally Posted by Adam43

First paragraph: yes.

Second paragraph. The solution to this needs a more convoluted rule to allow for the different weights.
We had weight if car. Simple.
Now we have weight plus driver. More convoluted.
We need car weight and driver plus ballast/seat/defined position weight. Very convoluted.

A lot of these rules become convoluted due to the demands placed upon the sport.

Yes Adam. That's why we have a plethora of rules and an ever increasing rule book.
some people believe that if you don't like something then you write a rule about it and rule books are full of badly written rules, created to deal with a particular issue that someone has a bee in their bonnet over.

A rule gets written and adopted but its often badly written or at odds with other aspects of basic competition common sense and gets upheld by people who really don't have a clue how to integrate the new rule with the rest of the rules, or use it in a legalistic way that partially or completely distorts the purpose for which it was intended, or is destructive to the way the basic principles of the way motorsport should be governed and administrated.

[Adam43]

I don't think that this rule is particularly badly written, it is just we feel it is no longer appropriate.