FIA director downplays concerns over reducing weight of cars

Williams team boss James Vowles has argued that it is impossible and will cost an awful lot of money to make the cars so that they are 30 kilos lighter. Adrian Newey has also expressed concerns about the new technical regulations.

'The thirty kilo weight reduction is achievable'

Nikolas Tombazis, the director of the FIA, told a press briefing on the new regulations the vision of Formula 1's governing body regarding reducing the weight of the cars. ''We are determined to reduce the weight of the cars. We have worked with a series of assumptions based on the work Jan [Monchaux] has done in collaboration with the teams and we have some areas where we know the weight will go up and we have some areas where we know the weight will go down and what we have as a target is based on a challenging, but in our opinion an achievable target.''

Tombazis indicated that the FIA will remain in talks with the Formula 1 teams to see if it is actually achievable. ''Obviously we will still be asking the teams to make some estimates of the weight savings they can achieve and so on, and we are going through that process, but we are pretty determined to reduce the weight significantly, which I think is the first time this has happened in Formula 1 since probably the 1980s.''

This article was written in collaboration with Sophia Crothall.