Seventy-five years ago this week, when Giuseppe Farina roared across the finishing line to win the first world championship grand prix at Silverstone, he did so in an Alfa Romeo 158 weighing – depending on fluids and which sources you use – between 650 and 700kg. When Formula 1 adopted a minimum weight for the first time in 1961, the figure was set at 450kg.
Under the most recent ruleset, teams have been struggling – note the amount of unpainted carbon fibre on display – to hit the current minimum of 800kg. On the face of it, not a fantastic advert for three-quarters of a century of scientific progress.
