Sainz and Ricciardo hope increasing driver weight rule will be fairer on taller rivals · RaceFans

Carlos Sainz Jnr and Daniel Ricciardo have expressed hopes that increasing the minimum driver weight rule will prove fairer to taller drivers.

The FIA’s F1 commission recently approved an an increase in the sport’s minimum weight limit for cars from 798kg to 800kg for next season.

This increase of 2kg will only be applied to the minimum weight for drivers and their seat and driving equipment. Currently, if the total weight of a driver, their race seat and equipment – helmet, HANS device, etc – does not reach 80kg, the difference must be made up with ballast. From next season, the minimum limit will be 82kg.

This change to the regulations means 2025’s F1 cars will set a new record for the heaviest in history, reaching a dry weight of 800kg for the first time. Although the FIA intends to reduce some of that weight with its major technical regulations changes in 2026, Sainz is wary of the creep in minimum weight that has taken place during his time in Formula 1.

“Obviously, two kilos is not a big change,” 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 10 years – to keep adding two kilos here, three there, five there, and then the cars have become 800 kilos heavy. In the past, they were around 600.”

While Sainz says he has had no problems with getting under the minimum weight and avoiding a potential performance penalty by being heavier than the limit, he accepts that drivers who are naturally taller – such as Nico Hulkenberg, Esteban Ocon and George Russell – face challenges with keeping their weight down.

“I did have to be careful with the amount of muscle you put on and the food that you take,” he explained. “But I’ve always been on the limit of that weight.

“But I can imagine being a Nico, an Esteban, or a Russell – I wouldn’t be very happy if I was 180-something centimetres. So I understand it’s been done probably for the heavier drivers, or the taller drivers, because they were always struggling a bit more than medium-size like me.”

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Ricciardo agrees that increasing the minimum driver weight is a step in the right direction for driver wellbeing.

“They can’t help being tall,” he said. “So it is unfair if they have to kind of dehydrate themselves just to make the weight, so to speak.

“But even us, even reaching that weight it is nice that we have the freedom to be the athletes that we need to be and it’s not like ‘oh, we have to watch out, we can’t do too much strength training’. So, having a little bit of freedom now around our training, I think that’s a big benefit for a lot of us.”

Despite approving of the increase in minimum driver weight, Sainz believes all drivers would like to see the general weight of modern F1 cars reduced, if it can be achieved without compromising safety.

“Work is going on, I guess, for 2026,” he said. “At the same time, I think this weight has made the cars also safer because there’s a lot of impact structure and a lot of work being done on the driver safety, which I’m never going to deny that I want that safety to be as high as possible.

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

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