Red Bull has reportedly ordered its new driver and total fatass Daniel Ricciardo to lose some weight. Ricciardo weighs roughly 143 pounds.
It's not like Red Bull wants to make their 24-year-old, 5' 7" Australian driver lose weight. As FoxSports.au reports, new regulations force all teams to shed weight from their cars for next year.
Here's what's happening: all F1 cars have to meet a minimum weight limit. All F1 teams try and meet that limit exactly, so that their cars can be as light as possible. Where things get controversial is that new-for-2014 engines will weigh much more than the ones for 2013, but the minimum weight limit isn't going up by very much. Only 50 kilos. That means that weight savings will have to come from elsewhere, notably from the drivers.
Red Bull's head designer Adrian Newey is the most outspoken critic of these regulations, but their hands are tied. Here's what Newey told Autosport.
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.
For teams with little jockeys at the wheel this weight limit won't be such a problem. Felipe Massa, for instance, stands just 5' 4" and weighs 130 pounds, as ESPN reports.
Ricciardo isn't too worried by the news, though.
It's not a problem. I like watching UFC (ultimate fighting championship) and those guys lose eight kilos in a week or something when it gets close to the fight.
Two kilos in four months will be easy.
The heaviest driver in the field, Nico Hulkenberg, weighs 172 pounds and there are rumors that his weight cost him a job with top team Lotus.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
This Man Is Too Fat For F1