The new weight regulations should be changed to help tall drivers, says Adrian Newey

Adrian Newey

Red Bull’s technical director Adrian Newey has said that the next year’s new weight regulations should be modified in order to help the taller drivers.

There have been efforts to make a 10kg rise in the current regulations and take the limit to 700 kg in order to compensate the heavier cars for 2014 season. But the decision has been put on hold due to the objection of one team, which is believed to be Mercedes.

“I think it should be changed. All teams bar one did vote for that weight limit to be increased and it has to be unanimous – but there was one team that objected to it,” Newey told Autosport.

Drivers including Nico Hulkenberg and Jenson Button have already expressed their unease with the new regulations and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo has been ordered to lose weight to meet the limits. Newey added that the new regulations were introduced too soon.

“The power trains are heavy and I think that is an unfortunate aspect. For the very heavy drivers, I can’t really see how the teams are going to get down to the weight limit. You can look at that two ways and say, well, if you weigh 15 stone you don’t ever expect to be a jockey and if you weigh seven stone you don’t ever expect to be a rugby player,” he said.

“But I think in this particular case where kids have got into it as drivers from karting, there has never been a big premium in recent years – ever since the weight of the car included the driver – to penalize heavy drivers. To suddenly introduce that for next year is very unfortunate,” he added.