Alonso another driver to lose weight for car performance

[Conceptual]

It is like the Quatrerback in US football...

20 years ago, the average QB was 5'11", 180lbs...

Now the average is like 6'5", 265lbs...

The fitness is the same, but some sports favor big players, others favor small players.

I believe this is what is meant by the phrase "not cut out for it"...

[ESPImperium]

I think theres an point we should get to in F1 to equalise the drivers.

Smaller lighter guys should have a little more added balast added to them to equalise the mo the heavier guys.

And as a point above said, removal of power steering.

What id do is keep power steering, but have rules govering the strength of it, id probably take as much as 60% of the current strenght out of it. The as for the smaller guys, what id do is make a minium requirement for driver weight like what we currently have for the engines, id say 72Kg???

Lets look at the driver weights to their personal websites (Current Drivers For 09 Season[confirmed]):

Hamilton: 68Kg
Hekki: 66KG
Kimi: No Weight Given
Massa: 59Kg
Kubica: 72.5Kg (As said above)
Heidfeld: No personal Website???
Alonso: No Weight Given
Piquet:No Weight Given
Trulli: 60Kg
Glock: No Personal Website???
Buemi: No Weight Given
Vettel: No Personal Website???
Webber: No Weight Given
Rossberg: No Weight Given
Nakajima: Website Closed for "renewal"
Fisi: 66Kg
Sutil: 75Kg

[kilcoo316]

Weight isn't directly comparable to fitness. Take a Rugby player for example, they can weigh upwards of 14 stone (89kg) and they're very very fit people.

You would be a small rugby player at 14 stone these days.

[Roland Ehnström]

There was a time many years ago, when the drivers were fat and the tires slim...

[enkidu]

Renault have more to gain than the other teams though,
Thy can lower the CoG by 2 feet on the car just by moving the chip on fernando's shoulder down to his ass

LMAO!

[enkidu]

So HAmilton is 9kg heavier than Massa.. Massa had 9kg of weight to chuck about the car and still lost the champ.. Unlucky massa hahaha

[ESPImperium]

So HAmilton is 9kg heavier than Massa.. Massa had 9kg of weight to chuck about the car and still lost the champ.. Unlucky massa hahaha

And if BMW Sauber has done a little more work on the F1.08 and they had a little more luck at Singapore and at least one other GP id have to say that Kube could have really came closer to them both, maybes even beating them.

EDIT:

Didnt Ferarri have the heavier car than McLaren without balast as well, that Slotted Nose was rumored to increase weight by at least 35Kg.

[Rob W]

I totally agree with this, I hate it when I go karting and have a little guy beat me because of he's weight not skill!

That has about as much validity in fairness though as saying 100m sprinters should all wear weights to even out their body mass index - to make it fair. Or that golf players should all have the same length combined arm/club measurement. It's just not worth thinking about as nothing is going to change.

The driver/weight issue is almost a non-event. If a guy is a good driver the team will find a way to make it work no matter what his weight (within reason) as a highly skilled & reliable driver is much, much harder to find than a light person.

So far as the driver losing weight being the cheapest option to save car weight - it is kind of self defeating if you push this too far as very lean people are much more prone to sudden blood-glucose dips/spikes - something you don't absolutely don't want when concentration is paramount.

[ISLAMATRON]

So HAmilton is 9kg heavier than Massa.. Massa had 9kg of weight to chuck about the car and still lost the champ.. Unlucky massa hahaha

And if BMW Sauber has done a little more work on the F1.08 and they had a little more luck at Singapore and at least one other GP id have to say that Kube could have really came closer to them both, maybes even beating them.

EDIT:

Didnt Ferarri have the heavier car than McLaren without balast as well, that Slotted Nose was rumored to increase weight by at least 35Kg.

In what universe does a hole weigh an extra 35kg? If the entire nosecone weighed that much you think they'd be able to change them that easy?

[enkidu]

I totally agree with this, I hate it when I go karting and have a little guy beat me because of he's weight not skill!

That has about as much validity in fairness though as saying 100m sprinters should all wear weights to even out their body mass index - to make it fair. Or that golf players should all have the same length combined arm/club measurement. It's just not worth thinking about as nothing is going to change.

The driver/weight issue is almost a non-event. If a guy is a good driver the team will find a way to make it work no matter what his weight (within reason) as a highly skilled & reliable driver is much, much harder to find than a light person.

So far as the driver losing weight being the cheapest option to save car weight - it is kind of self defeating if you push this too far as very lean people are much more prone to sudden blood-glucose dips/spikes - something you don't absolutely don't want when concentration is paramount.

Have you ever been karting???

Weight plays a massive part!

Buckmore park near me started seperating below 12 stone and above 12 stone to make it fair... i'm sorry but runners are all built the same, basket ball players are all built the same. Motor Racing is not about how you are built or look its about what you can do with a car!

[ernos5]

That realy aint healthy, im 190 cm 16 years old and i weight 65 kilos, heidfeld and kubica really arent healthy, im almost heavier then kubica and im really underweight.

Weight isn't directly comparable to fitness. Take a Rugby player for example, they can weigh upwards of 14 stone (89kg) and they're very very fit people.

i'm 188cm and i weight about 73kg, i'm fit and not overweight. But i have a bit more muscle then most, i go to gym regulary

[Rob W]

Have you ever been karting???

Weight plays a massive part!

Yes.. I never said weight didn't play a massive part - I said it's pointless to try to justify penalising heavier people. If you're heavy enough that your weight is an issue - don't race, simple as that. The same as short white guys don't get selected to play on basketball teams to even it up a bit.

Amateur or social sport/racing rules which address stuff like this (such as handicaps in golf) are there to avoid whitewashes or inherent unfairness but when you're in the top level of sport you exactly can't say "yes,.. I'm at the pinnacle of this sport... by the way, can you make those four guys wear weight belts please..."

Heavyweight boxing - the sky is the limit - I never heard Mike Tyson complaining that Lennox Lewis was 10cm taller, 10kg heavier and had a 15cm reach advantage.

As for weight in F1.... I bet they'd make more difference in F1 by entering the pits each morning and commandeering the tires then randomly distributing them back amongst teams. I bet it would make more difference to the performance of whichever team happened to be the recipient of the *ahem* 'special' batch of tires than a driver who ate too many pies.

[jddh1]

I agree with Rob W wholeheartedly in this matter. If it was a matter of just weight, then we'd see jockeys invade the sport. But we don't, do we? Kubica and Sutil are still on the grid because they are skilled and their employers are more interested in that than in their height/weight.

Come on people! There is no reason to complain about these things. Nate Robinson of the New York Knicks NBA club is only 5 foot 6 inches tall and yet he's blocked Yao Ming and Shaq (see youtube videos). If you have the skill nobody will stay in your way. In the NHL you have players go from Martin St.Louis at 5 foot 5 inches to Zdeno Chara at 6 feet 10 inches I think. So there is no reason to complain at all.

[Shaddock]

I think that we also have to remember that most of the top teams are into the second or third year with their driver pairings. The drivers heights, weights are known factors to the design teams. Mansell being to fat to fit into the standard chassis of the McLaren in the 90’s shouldn’t happen again.

Most of the teams ran towards the end of last season cars with skinny wings to and slicks to analyse the tyres wear rates, levels of grip, operating temperatures and setups.

These results of those tests would be used to design the suspension components and geometry and feed into the teams ideal weight distribution for this years car.

A designer will know that you may need up to 20kg of ballast to move around the car to compensate the difference in setups for each driver. They know that their drivers weighs X amount and so should bring the new car in at a weight that will allow for various changes in setup and a little extra in reserve.

There have been rumours of some teams developing two chassis, one with KERS and one without. Now that would allow the teams to tighten up the cars bodywork for aero efficiency, and have plenty of capacity to move and extra 40kg of ballast around the car.

[ConsFW]

Buckmore park near me started seperating below 12 stone and above 12 stone to make it fair... i'm sorry but runners are all built the same, basket ball players are all built the same. Motor Racing is not about how you are built or look its about what you can do with a car!

And basketball is about what you can do with a ball! Why don't we have height classes for that, to make it fair.

Think about it this way - if there were a 159kg (350lb) driver with more driving skill than Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna combined, do you think he could succeed in Formula One? Should the rules be changed to give such a driver a "fair" chance? After all, it's should just be about "skill" right? Where do we draw the line? In reality, what we call skill is not merely mental but also physical ability, whether it involves throwing a basketball or driving a car at 5Gs.