By Joe Murphy
Kevin Magnussen has echoed the thoughts of George Russell in terms of concerns regarding the weight of F1 cars, claiming the increased heaviness makes them less fun to drive.
Ever since cars were made heavier, we have seen an improvement in safety at Grand Prix events. However, we have also seen more bouncing and the physical toll of F1 drivers, that was already extreme, has got worse. F1 cars have never been heavier than they are today. Indeed, there are signs that this may only get worse.
Heavier tyres, new electronics systems and greater safety equipment all add weight. The Halo, for example, pushed up the weight of the cars. For the 2023 season, the minimum car weight was 798kg. About the same as a mini cooper and this weight is excluding the huge amounts of fuel needed to power these machines. With approximately 110kg of fuel for some races, the F1 drivers are ultimately flying around tracks in a tonne.
According to both Russell and Magnussen, this makes them a lot less fun to drive.
“The 2017 to 2020 cars were really fun – still heavy but not as heavy as they are now. These cars have gotten a little bit… the effect is really starting to show in the low speed corners where the car is a bit too heavy and feels more like a prototype car than a Formula 1 car.”
After George Russell had raised concerns regarding similar issues, Magnussen recognised the need for improvements in safety and did claim the oace is still there. Nevertheless, he went on to say that the FIA need to be careful not to take the soul out of the sport; “I just think if they go too much away from fast cars… to me, Formula 1 is supposed to have the fastest cars in the world on a lap, time wise. So I hope they continue down that road.”
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