Like Mercedes, which made a radical choice by offering an all-black single-seater for the 2023 season, most teams present cars that directly reveal the carbon that composes them.
Black is black, there is more hope… for Mercedes. After a disappointing 2022 season, with only one victory, the Silver Arrows will start the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday March 5, fully decked out in this color to return to the top. A strategic choice before being aesthetic since the carbon is left raw on certain areas of the single-seater in order to save weight and therefore in performance.
Six kilos is about what the paint weighs on a Formula 1 car when it is completely covered with paint. In an era where a few thousandths of a second can make the difference in qualifying sessions, a few grams count. DMany teams have opted for the same strategy. Haas presented a single-seater with dominant black, Alfa Romeo replaced white with black, and the Alpine and McLaren have slightly more in 2023 than in 2022.
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While some dark areas of these single-seaters are actually painted black, others are left unpainted, with the car’s raw carbon. “We were overweight last year. This season we tried to figure out where we could find every gram to remove,” assumed Toto Wolf, the director of Mercedes. “A bare minimum livery like ours, more black in the others, it all shows that we are all about performance rather than looks.” added its pilot, Lewis Hamilton.
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Play on paint to gain strategy on aerodynamics
Despite this loss of paint weight, the teams must nevertheless ensure that their single-seaters reach the minimum weight of 798 kilos, regulated by the International Automobile Federation (FIA). “Most teams are even looking to be below this minimum mass, for example with less paint, and then add ballast where they want on the car, in order to have more authority over its center of gravity and its dynamic balance”explains Cyril Abiteboul, former director of Renault F1 Team and consultant for France Télévisions.
“There is no better project in terms of risk. You can work on aerodynamic projects, on suspensions, but it does not always work in racing. While removing mass works all the time, it there is the certainty of gaining lap time.”
Cyril Abiteboulat franceinfo:sport
With a few grams or kilos less, the single-seaters could gain a few hundredths during qualifying, and thus a few places on the grid. “There is a huge difference between starting 4th or 7th for example. When you find yourself in the middle of the grid, there is more risk of collision”, comments Cyril Abiteboul. Once this performance gain has been established, however, the marketing teams still have to accept the idea that the colors of the sponsors are less present on the single-seaters. A mission visibly successful by many teams.