When Mercedes launched its 2023 W14 there were a lot of comments about the return to a black livery. The base colour is that of the naked carbon fibre structure, with no paint applied at all. And the reason? To save weight.
Mercedes is not alone in stripping paint, or at least refraining from applying it in the first place, for this reason. But given the current minimum weight limit is a whopping 798kg, you may be left wondering how they can fail to build a car that can accommodate a few coats of satin silver. As always with cutting-edge competition, the answer isn't simple.
The need to reduce weight for racing was understood from motorsport’s very beginnings. But in those pioneering days, with relatively low speeds and only a basic grasp of aerodynamics among engineers, weight reduction more often than not simply meant discarding any bodywork deemed non-essential while drilling various components in strategic places. The advantage of reducing mass is directly linked to the fact that, as Sir Isaac Newton observed, a moving object will continue in a straight line unless a force is exerted on it. The greater the mass of your vehicle, the greater the force required to accelerate it, stop it or make it change direction.
One of the first applications of a weight limit in motorsport came about through the realisation that bigger, more powerful engines with their cooling and fuel systems are heavier than smaller ones. In the 1930s the rulemakers believed that if they wanted to limit speeds and expenditure then stipulating an upper limit for the weight of competing vehicles was a pretty handy way of doing it.
However, the governing AIACR soon realised the difficulty in this approach when it introduced the 750kg formula in 1934. The expectation was that this maximum weight limit would effectively result in engines of up to two litres only.
But a fresh approach, exotic materials and access to state funds allowed Mercedes to turn up for the new grand prix season with the 3.4-litre W25, and Auto Union with the 4.4-litre Type A. Both gained even more power by being supercharged.
Top 10: Ranking the best pre-war grand prix cars
In a parallel to the present day, that Mercedes was devoid of paint to save weight, thus giving birth to the legend of the ‘Silver Arrows’. There’s a popular story that the paint removal was a last-minute fix for the cars being marginally overweight on debut at the 1934 Eifelrennen. But some suggest this was theatre concocted by legendary team manager Alfred Neubauer – the silver look goes back even further.
Source: Autosport