why is there a minimum weight requirement in Formula 1? Wouldn’t teams be incentivized to lessen the weight of their cars for faster speeds?
In: 3031
The entire point is to keep developmental costs down; you can absolutely shave off some weight, but doing so increases engineering and developmental costs and encourages the uses of more expensive materials.
Do that, and you’ll lessen the number of teams and make it even harder for new teams to enter the sport. Which is obviously bad for the sport.
Exactly that. They want to improve performance, not finding ways to save weight and potentially compromise safety to much. Having a minimum helps keep the cars more equally sized.
The entire point is to keep developmental costs down; you can absolutely shave off some weight, but doing so increases engineering and developmental costs and encourages the uses of more expensive materials.
Do that, and you’ll lessen the number of teams and make it even harder for new teams to enter the sport. Which is obviously bad for the sport.
Exactly that. They want to improve performance, not finding ways to save weight and potentially compromise safety to much. Having a minimum helps keep the cars more equally sized.
Formula 1 is all about restriction, it’s about making the absolute best out of a rule-set – that is the “formula”.
Weight has a massive impact on performance of the cars, with no minimum weight the cars would be too fast and would incentivise development on weight reduction rather than other innovation.
This in turn potentially has an impact on adherence to safety regulations, but primarily it’s about the cars becoming too fast – which is a constant battle for the regulators to keep the races safe.
The entire point is to keep developmental costs down; you can absolutely shave off some weight, but doing so increases engineering and developmental costs and encourages the uses of more expensive materials.
Do that, and you’ll lessen the number of teams and make it even harder for new teams to enter the sport. Which is obviously bad for the sport.
Formula 1 is all about restriction, it’s about making the absolute best out of a rule-set – that is the “formula”.
Weight has a massive impact on performance of the cars, with no minimum weight the cars would be too fast and would incentivise development on weight reduction rather than other innovation.
This in turn potentially has an impact on adherence to safety regulations, but primarily it’s about the cars becoming too fast – which is a constant battle for the regulators to keep the races safe.
Exactly that. They want to improve performance, not finding ways to save weight and potentially compromise safety to much. Having a minimum helps keep the cars more equally sized.
You have to keep in mind that F1 is a sport and a way to make money via people watching it.
As such going fast is certainly important, but not the only goal.
There are actually a whole bunch of rules that result in slower cars but are there to keep the viewers (and competitors) happy.
Some rules (like minimum weights) are there to keep the playing field somewhat level and keep F1 from devolving into a pay-to-win sport.
There is also rules that are just there to ensure the cars *look cool*, because people don’t want to watch ugly cars (lookup “F1 X Wings”)
You have to keep in mind that F1 is a sport and a way to make money via people watching it.
As such going fast is certainly important, but not the only goal.
There are actually a whole bunch of rules that result in slower cars but are there to keep the viewers (and competitors) happy.
Some rules (like minimum weights) are there to keep the playing field somewhat level and keep F1 from devolving into a pay-to-win sport.
There is also rules that are just there to ensure the cars *look cool*, because people don’t want to watch ugly cars (lookup “F1 X Wings”)
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