Nigel Mansell is a man who is a former Formula One driver, so he should know a thing or two about ridiculous regulations. That being said, he things the new regulations for 2014 are completely nuts, as they are discriminatory. Because they discriminate against the "large."
It's a fact of life that certain sports favor certain body types. This is not news. Nigel Mansell thinks this is news though, according to the BBC, because F1's new weight regulations discriminate against drivers who are fat or drivers who are tall:
"So I think get the weight limit up a bit, make some cars carry some ballast so that the bigger drivers don't suffer as much. "
The problem is that the new V6 turbo engines weigh a bit more than the engines they're replacing, but the FIA hasn't upped the minimum weight limit on an F1 car. Thus there's less of a need for ballast, and the team with the lighter driver will have a lighter car overall, and less weight translates into real time saved on the track.
So the solution is for the drivers to get down to as low a weight as possible. The problem is twofold, though. Muscle weighs a lot, and you need muscle to drive a modern F1 car. So assuming you need a baseline of muscle on a driver, the only way you can then cut weight is to find a driver who is shorter (or you find a driver willing to cut bits off, like Lewis Hamilton).
That's not so much of a problem for people like Fernando Alonso, who's 5'7, but it's more of a problem for guys like Nico Hulkenberg, who's 6'0.
To be totally honest, I have no problem with F1's new regulations whatsoever. If your team can't make the minimum weight, that's not the worst thing in the world as it's not like you'll be barred from racing like you would if you went over the maximum weight. You'll just have to find the way to make up the time penalty some other way.
And sports discriminate against certain body types by their very nature. You don't see people complaining that the NBA needs to make its hoops shorter because there are some players with "a lot of talent" who happen to only be 5'8. And you don't see people clamoring to change the rules of American football just because the defensive tackle position favors someone who weighs over 300 pounds.
So, Nigel Mansell, if you're going to continue this campaign, I think F1 is the last place to start.
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