Sainz admits 'problem' with even heavier 2025 cars

Jul.26 (GMM) Carlos Sainz says it’s a “problem” for Formula 1 that the cars keep getting incrementally heavier.

Today’s hybrid-powered single seaters are literally hundreds of kilograms heavier than in the past – and now an extra 2kg has been added to the weight of the seat-plus driver for 2025.

The FIA explained that the move is “in the interests of driver wellbeing”.

“Obviously, two kilos is not a big change,” Ferrari’s Sainz said. “The problem is when you start adding two kilos on top of another two, another two, another two, which I think is where the trend has been in Formula 1 over the last ten years.

“Then the cars have become 800 kilos heavy,” he said. “In the past, they were around 600.”

Sainz admits the extra 2kgs will be welcomed by tall drivers like Nico Hulkenberg, Esteban Ocon and George Russell who are taller and therefore naturally heavier.

“Yeah,” agreed Daniel Ricciardo. “They can’t help being tall, so it’s unfair if they have to kind of dehydrate themselves just to make the weight, so to speak.”

For the all-new regulations commencing in 2026, the overall minimum weight is being reduced to 768kg – but insiders believe the 32kg reduction is not enough to make the cars as nimble and ‘racy’ as in the past.

“Anything that we can do to bring the weight back down, I think every driver here will appreciate it,” said Sainz. “We hope the FIA and the teams are taking that into consideration when deciding future rules – not only the ’26 ones.”