When the F1 cars are lined up in the beginning of March, it is easy to find a visually unifying factor.
A lot of black color has been used in the cars. In some places there is no color at all, so the natural color of the construction material of F1 cars, i.e. carbon fiber, gets its rights.
From the cars that have already been released, you quickly notice that many teams have significantly increased the use of black and unpainted surfaces. For example, Alfa Romeo has given up the almost completely white color and replaced it with black details.
Most recently, Mercedes released its new W14 car. The team is returning to the all-black car it last drove in the 2020 and 2021 seasons. Back then, the most important factor was to support diversity and equality, but this time Mercedes also justified the decision with another reason.
– Last year, our car weighed too much. This year we’ve tried to think where we can squeeze every gram out of, team manager Toto Wolff your line.
– The color black became part of our DNA last time, so we are happy to return to using it, Wolff said.
Losing weight is expensive
Saving weight is one of the most significant factors behind the phenomenon. Sports expert Jukka Mildhin reducing the weight during the season is really expensive, so the teams try to get their cars to the ideal weight as early as possible.
Thus, in the big picture, the budget ceiling plays a significant role in the change.
– The original color of the carbon fiber is black and it is easy to leave it unpainted. It’s expensive to make a car light, and everyone strives to have a good starting weight already at the beginning of the season, says Mildh.
– Stables strive to reduce weight in all areas, and the paintwork is part of this, says Mildh.
Last season, many teams exceeded the minimum car weight of 798 kilograms. Only Alfa Romeo got its car to the weight limit right at the beginning of the season.
Last year, the F1 teams had difficulties developing their cars to make them lighter during the season. Black color was already seen at that time as the season progressed, but this season we want to save more on surface materials than before.
For example, the Alfa Romeo team manager Beat Zehnder has said, according to Reuters, that the paint on an F1 car weighs about six kilograms. It was already reported about Aston Martin last season that removing the green paint from part of the car reduced the car’s weight by 350 grams.
The process is speeding up
The saving sounds small, but every gram saved enables the development of the car’s structures to be better with performance in mind.
– Using black, i.e. the natural color of carbon fiber, is reasonable and practical these days, says Mildh.
Mildh reminds us that parts break during the season, and in addition, the aerodynamic parts of an F1 car change a lot between races.
Sometimes the teams are in a hurry to make new parts for their cars. When the part is completely black, it can be manufactured and replaced in the car faster than before.
– If you don’t have to treat the surface at all, but can directly attach the carbon fiber black part, it speeds up the process a lot and thus the stable can make its operations more efficient. It sounds minimal, but in the big picture and in a hurry, even these things have an effect, says Mildh.
Open up possibilities
Getting the car to the ideal weight is important, because every ten extra kilos slows down the lap time by 0.3 seconds. Achieving the minimum weight also enables the weight to be transferred to different parts of the car.
– With an F1 car, it’s important to get all the weight as close to the ground as possible. It affects the driving characteristics significantly. The details are small and hundreds of grams really make a difference, says Mildh.
– It is important for the stables to be able to add additional weights or move the positions of the weights during the season and when adjustments change on different tracks. You have to be prepared for that, says Mildh.
Performance drives operations
In the end, according to Mildh, it was easy for Mercedes to return to the black color, because they already had experience from previous years, how, for example, the logos of partners can be seen on the side of the car.
The main sponsors and the main colors that are important for the team’s brand have their meaning when the teams design their cars.
– Black is an effective color, but it doesn’t always bring out the main sponsors’ own brand in the right way. For example, Ferrari cannot give up its red color under any circumstances, although it also has black at the moment. Alfa Romeo can’t just give up the red color either.
In the end, only the performance of the car guides the operation.
– The car’s design, color scheme and appearance are done within the boundaries of the partners and the team’s brand, but performance does come first in all cases. I think it affects how the car is painted in the end.
The F1 season starts next weekend in Bahrain.