Performance behind the qualifying times

Prior to the current season it was commonplace to hear a driver or team talking about adjusting their qualifying times on account of the fuel they carried on board in qualifying. This year the FIA publish this information and it makes for interesting reading.

Unsurprisingly, those with the most fuel on board and therefore the heaviest declared weights generally did not make the top ten shoot out in qualifying. As a rule of thumb, 10kg of fuel lasts four to five laps while 10kg of fuel slows the car by roughly 0.3s a lap – depending on the circuit type and length.

The minimum weight for a Formula One car is 605kg with the driver on board and with the addition of KERS this year, the teams opting to run the new system have, while able to meet the minimum weight, have not been able to ballast the car towards that limit as they would likehe minimum limit.

Pole sitter Jenson Button weighed in at 664.5kg (table below) after qualifying suggesting he has a good level of fuel on board the super-impressive Brawn Mercedes. Rubens Barrichello was just 2kg heavier as he lines up alongside in the sister BGP 001.

One figure stands out at the top of the table detailed below and that is Kazuki Nakajima. The Williams Toyota driver did not make it into the final phase of qualifying and running on fumes in Q2, his listed weight is an astonishing 612.5kg, some 81kg lighter than the KERS equipped Renault of Nelson Piquet.

The BMW Sauber (again with KERS) of Nick Heidfeld is the second heaviest package in the field today, some 41.6 kg heavier than Robert Kubica’s standard F1.09 but over at Ferrari, they are running relatively light considering they also have KERS on board.

There’s plenty of data available this year and it should enable fans of the sport to get a better understand of what to expect on race day.

Melbourne - Qualifying Weights (kg)
1 . K. Nakajima - Williams Toyota FW31 - 612.5 *
2 . R. Kubica - BMW Sauber F1.09 - 650.0
3 . F. Massa - Ferrari F60 - 654.0
4 . K. Raikkonen - Ferrari F60 - 655.0
5 . L. Hamilton - McLaren Mercedes MP4-24 - 655.0 *
6 . N. Rosberg - Williams Toyota FW31 - 657.0
7 . S. Vettel - Red Bull Renault RB5 - 657.0
8 . J. Trulli - Toyota TF109 - 660.0
9 . M. Webber - Red Bull Renault RB5 - 662.0
10 . S. Bourdais - Toro Rosso Ferrari STR4 - 662.5 *
11 . J. Button - Brawn Mercedes BGP 001 - 664.5
12 . R. Barrichello - Brawn Mercedes BGP 001 - 666.5
13 . T. Glock - Toyota TF109 - 670.0
14 . S. Buemi - Toro Rosso Ferrari STR4 - 675.5 *
15 . F. Alonso - Renault R29 - 680.7 *
16 . A. Sutil - Force India Mercedes VJM02 - 684.5 *
17 . G. Fisichella - Force India Mercedes VJM02 - 689.0 *
18 . H. Kovalainen - McLaren Mercedes MP4-24 - 690.6 *
19 . N. Heidfeld - BMW Sauber F1.09 - 691.5 *
20 . N. Piquet - Renault R29 - 694.1 *

* Declared weight (outside of top ten)