Quote:
Originally Posted by Greem
One of the reasons the cars are heavier and "fatter" is mostly overlooked: driver safety. Time was (and it wasn't that long ago really!) that F1 cars were metaphorical bathtubs filled with fuel, with the driver's safety right at the bottom of the priority pile at the design stage.
The central tub of all of the cars is massively over-engineered compared to what it could be, but that's one of the reasons drivers like Grosjean & Alonso got to escape from extremely high speed crashes. Yes, they're laid up from carbon fibre and other complex composites to keep the weight down and strength up, but when you look at the mandatory crash test requirements they need a lot more material than they used to.
Make the cars lighter by all means, but don't compromise the human holding the steering wheel!
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Small problem to the safety theory (which should not be comperomised), the monocoque of the 2019 cars weighed approximately 35 kg!