The RB18 on a diet: this is how many kilos Verstappen's car lost

Many teams made updates to their cars before the Grand Prix in Imola. Red Bull Racing also made changes, focusing on reducing the weight of the RB18.

Polesitter Max Verstappen will start the sprint race this afternoon with a car that is significantly lighter than the one he started with in Melbourne. Red Bull introduced new, lightweight components in Imola to reduce excess weight. As a result of the diet, the RB18 is about 15 kilos heavier than the minimum imposed by the FIA, the Italian Gazzetta.

One of the elements that has been slimmed down considerably is the bottom. Besides a minimal change to the diffuser, the bottom has a lighter structure than the previous version. Specifically, this would amount to 4.5 kilograms less. But it didn't stop there. Another 2 kilograms have been gained through the use of modified metals as well.

In the end, the slimming operation would have resulted in a reduction of approximately. This is a mass reduction that corresponds to a theoretical improvement in lap times of almost two tenths of a second per lap.