Harman: I hope our car will be lighter than others

Last year, the first since the transition to the new regulations, the teams failed to meet the minimum car weights – all were heavier than the rules allowed.

During the course of the season, the engineers managed to make the cars lighter, which affected the results. Alpine F1 technical director Matt Harman said in an interview with Racingnews365.com that everyone will reduce weight to the target of 798kg this year.

Matt Harman: “Last year the weight of safety elements increased by 30%. It was very difficult to pass the mandatory crash tests. This was one of the most exciting moments of homologation – when the manufacturing process takes that long, you really want to do them the first time.

Over the course of last season we worked hard to reduce the weight, but at some point we stopped doing it – it became ineffective to reduce it even more on a working car.

In the first three, four or five races we removed almost half of the extra weight from the car, and then we stopped, realizing that this money would be better spent on the underbody, fenders, bodywork. At some point, you reach the point where it becomes more and more expensive to get every extra pound out of the car. And it is better to spend these funds on optimizing aerodynamics.

I am proud of what the team has achieved. We significantly reduced the weight of the car, which was the result of a better understanding of the restrictive operating modes of the machine, the maximum load on the chassis and the suspension.

I am almost certain that there will be no cars on the starting grid this year that would exceed the weight limit. I hope our car will be lighter than others, allowing us to use the ballast efficiently.”