So far, five F1 teams have launched their liveries for the 2024 season, and almost all of them are predominantly black or have some significant black elements in them. McLaren and Williams have a decent amount of color on their liveries. However, Sauber, Alpine, and Haas have gone extreme in terms of having a black and dull livery. The reason behind the same is the fact that they feature exposed carbon fiber. While paint usually covers the same, the lack of it is bothering the fans. But why are teams shedding the paint?
F1 is all about performance and being fast on the tracks. If a car weighs more than the rest, it will inevitably be slow on the tracks in the long run. As such, shedding as much weight as possible while not hampering a car’s performance is key. This is where exposed carbon fiber comes into play for the F1 teams.
According to Mark Hughes from The Race, each full-color scheme to a car adds at least 1 kilogram (2.3 pounds) of weight, which affects performance. To put the same into numbers, a kilo of extra weight adds around 0.03 seconds to a lap time.
In a race of around 60 laps, this would translate into 1.8 seconds. This means that a car would be 1.8 seconds slower in a race only because of added weight (via paint in this scenario).
To put things into further perspective, a full paint job on a car adds around 6 kilograms (13.227 pounds). Certain teams (such as McLaren) are turning to vinyl to add color to their cars instead of paint. The material is lighter and saves crucial weight while allowing their cars to stand out from the crowd.
Drivers’ weight included, a car’s minimum weight should be 798 kgs (1759 lbs). While this has about 70 to 80 kgs of the driver (which drivers too look to optimize), under the latest regulations, teams are doing everything they can to ensure they only add weight that aids in performance. The rest only acts as a barrier for them.
What is the Carbon Fiber material that F1 teams use?
For decades, the teams in F1 have built their cars almost entirely of a material called carbon fiber. It is the exposed black part of a car that teams are now in favor of showing off rather than covering it with paint.
The primary reason behind the use of this material is its strength-to-weight ratio. While most other materials that provide good strength to cars are very heavy, carbon fiber is amongst the lightest and strongest materials for the job.
Furthermore, it acts as an excellent safety material for the drivers, owing to its tensile strength. Teams require multiple layers of CF on each part to ensure maximum durability.
They vacuum layers together before putting the parts into a pressure cooker to complete the manufacturing process. McLaren introduced the material in F1 when they first started using carbon fiber back in the 1980s.
