Other Formula 1 teams ‘playing games’ around car weight limit, fumes Alfa Romeo boss

Frederic Vasseur feels teams were trying to raise the minimum weight limit to frustrate Alfa Romeo

Frederic Vasseur believes other teams have tactically been playing around with the weight of their cars (Getty Images)

Alfa Romeo team principal Frederic Vasseur believes other Formula 1 teams have been ‘playing games’ when it comes to the weight of their cars this season.

Due to the increase in tyre size and a number of other heavy additions, the minimum weight of a car plus driver was increased from 792 kilograms to 795kg for 2022.

But after the pre-season testing some teams voiced their concerns to the FIA that the minimum weight was still too low. It was subsequently readjusted to 798kg.

Most teams are thought to be well above this limit, with Mercedes and Red Bull trying new things out at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix last weekend in a bid to slim their cars down.

The only team perfectly on 798kg at present is said to be Alfa Romeo, with Vasseur suggesting some teams wanted to raise the minimum weight to disadvantage his team who had got it precisely on the minimum limit.

Speaking to Autosport, Vasseur said: “Honestly, I don’t understand all the comments because that I think it’s the target for everybody that when you are designing a racing car the weight is always the target number one.

“Nobody can be surprised with the weight at the last minute, I think that some teams played a game with the FIA expecting that the FIA at the last minute would increase the minimum weight [even more].

“But this would have been completely unfair, because during the project we took some decisions in terms of complexity also linked to the weight, and we made our choice.

“And you know that the F1 world is like this, that everybody’s trying to play a game.”

Alfa Romeo have made a positive start to the season, currently sitting fifth in the constructors championship after four races.

Valtteri Bottas sits eighth in the drivers’ standings on 24 points, with new F1 star Guanyu Zhou down in 16th having picked up one point.