Could You Explain A Little The Impact Of Weight In 2018 And What Changed Now? Like, Did Drivers Have

Could you explain a little the impact of weight in 2018 and what changed now? like, did drivers have to be lighter and now they can be a more normal weight? I think i remember seeing someting about a driver who was looking very unhealthy (Magnussen i think?)

oh of course! tw for explicit discussion of weights ahead n i'm gonna have some pics of drivers comparing their weights below the cut so be warned

so before the start of the 2019 season, the total weight of a car and a driver had to be a certain amount. it was 708kg in 2016, 728kg in 2017, and 734kg in 2018 (bumped up for the halo). having a lighter car is an advantage in f1 for obvious reasons

drivers were expected to lose as much weight as possible while still having the strength to drive the car. we heard about them doing things to lose weight for better performance in the car - nico rosberg stopped cycling in 2016 to try and lose muscle on his legs for better balance in the car. jenson button really struggled to 'make weight'. nico hulkenberg was questioned by bigger teams because he's 6ft tall and significantly heavier than a lot of drivers.

obviously rb is the root of all evil... so we need to get onto them. 2014 toro rosso my behated.

if you've heard people talking about JEV in formula e, they're on about jean-eric vergne, who is another french driver who was in toro rosso. in 2014 he was teammates with dany kvyat.

even now, dany is built like a rake. he was a skinny 19 year old at the start of 2014 and weighed 58kg/128lb at 5'9". vergne was 6ft tall and 69kg/152lb. vergne was an adult man, while dany was still growing, so this makes sense. dany is going to be smaller.

however, engineers determined that the weight difference between dany and vergne was making vergne 4 tenths slower per lap which. in the 2014 australian grand prix, 4 tenths faster in qualy would have had vergne starting 2nd on the grid.

so vergne tried to lose weight. he starved himself and landed himself in hospital. he was dehydrated and weak from trying. horrendous. shouldn't have happened. but it was almost... praised?

later that season, we then got concern about helmut marko about dany. dany had a growth spurt. dany hit 6ft tall and gained some weight, bc his bones were longer. dany's heavier and there was question about whether he'd fit in the car. should this really be something we're asking about a 19 year old... esp when his teammate has hospitalised himself over trying to hit this boy's weight...

in 2018, they brought in the halo. one of the arguments from drivers was that they were going to need to lose more weight to make room for it. this comment from max is shocking in hindsight:

max is 6ft, and built a little broader than some other drivers - he's got a wider set of shoulders on him. but like he says - he was worried about the introduction of a life saving device because he didn't have more weight to lose to make room for it.

this wasn't only an issue for taller drivers though. we have this episode of ultimate gasly from 2018, where pierre - who is 5'9"-5'10", and built pretty slim - talks openly about being asked to lose 400g to make room for a bigger motor.

now if you look at the rb and tr lineup in 2018... pierre was pretty tiny. if he was getting asked to lose 400g and having to go to some lengths to do that... what were the taller drivers having to do? max, brendon, and daniel are all taller and broader than pierre.

anyway. this was 'fixed' in 2019 new regs. now the combination of a driver and his seat must be 80kg. the seat has to be made heavier to compensate for a smaller driver - yuki is the lightest on the grid, bc he's 5'2", so his seat will have more weight put under it to compensate.

it's not perfect, but for someone like max, who is taller and heavier (he's 74kg), this actually is okay - he has 2kg of clothing and helmet on, and his seat is 4kg to bring him to the limit.

multiple drivers have reported feeling better as a result of it. we've seen them get more muscular - pierre is a good example, he has beefed up quite a bit. we've also got lewis who's added a few kilos and far muscle. the taller drivers - esteban for example, who looked pretty skeletal for a while - look healthier.