VARIOUS Formula One teams have resorted to stripping the paint from their liveries in order to reduce the weight of cars.
Every team has appeared to struggle this year in terms of the weight of their assets.
Aston Martin have made some changes to their livery
The new regulations have meant that each car has become significantly heavier, making it even harder for the teams to produce their ideal vehicles.
Despite an initial increase to the minimum mass from 752kg to 795kg, many teams still found it impossible to hit the target.
As a result, the FIA agreed to increase it once more to 798kg.
But, this has meant that teams have now been forced to find alternative ways to bring the weight of their cars down.
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Groups such as Aston Martin have made the decision to chip off some of their paint work in order to make the cars as light as possible.
The British company have had to make some subtle changes to the design to facilitate the changes.
As per Motorsport.com, Aston Martin’s chief technical officer Andy Green said: “Weight is a big, big issue.
“These cars are heavy by regulation, and to get down to the regulation weight, it’s a challenge.
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“We went through the whole car from front to back, and we took paint off wherever we could.
“I think in total we saved about 350 grammes.”
The 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix was the first opportunity for everybody to see the brand new cars in action, and some certainly struggled more than others.
Mercedes were nowhere near as competitive as they have been in previous years, however, Lewis Hamilton – who finished third in the race – suggested that they are expecting some upgrades in the coming weeks.
When speaking to Sky Sports, he said: “This is really the best result we could’ve got, of course it was unfortunate for the other drivers but we did the best we could and got the points.
“I know the guys are working hard at the factory.”
Red Bull also struggled. Both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez were forced to retire their cars from the race due to power issues.
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On the other hand, Ferrari seem to be flying high.
Charles Leclerc won the opening race in Bahrain, and was closely followed by teammate Carlos Sainz in second place.
