Weight is the holy grail of Formula One, achieving the lightest possible weight for the car allows the engineers to fine tune almost every aspect of the car for that extra tenth of a second. But it’s not only the car that needs to be light, the driver needs to be feather weight as well so the car doesn’t carry too much weight.
If you have not noticed Formula One drivers are like race jockeys, tiny, fit and extremely light. Seven time world champion Michael Schumacher may look like a bag of muscle but he weighs in at less than 70kg with almost every other Formula One driver falling into that same weight class as well, save for one driver now.
Rookie Vitaly Petrov seemingly is not up to standards when it comes to his weight and Renault has told the Russian to shed the kilos. The Renault cars have been unexpectedly competitive this season with Robert Kubica making it to the podium and bagging points with a top ten finish in the Malaysian GP. But Petrov has been off the pace if compared to his Polish team mate and Renault seems to think that he’ll be able to be up there with his team mate if he looses weight.
Kubica and Petrov, both among F1’s tallest drivers, are roughly the same height but Petrov weighs 10kg more than Robert. That’s a lot when you’re racing in Formula One but with strict orders from the team, Petrov will now be working with his dietitian to shed off the kilos. We expect quicker times from the impressive rookie in a few weeks time.
Source: GMM
