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Daniel Ricciardo says that he believes the new rules regarding the minimum car weight should mean that drivers can take in more calories and become stronger.
In the past, the weight restrictions in the sport have mean that taller drivers, such as Marcus Ericsson and Esteban Ocon, have been at a disadvantage. This is because they have been forced to go onto strict diet regimes in order to reduce the amount of time lost due to the extra weight, and it is even rumoured that Nico Hulkenberg previously lost out on a drive at McLaren in 2013 due to his weight.
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With the new rules however, each driver and the seat must weight a minimum of 80kg. If this combination comes in at less that this, the team will be required to fit a ballast inside the car's cockpit to bring the weight of the car up to the 743kg minimum.
Ricciardo believes that this will enable drivers to relax their diet, and be a little less strict with the food they eat.
"Everyone will appreciate their food a little more," said the Australian. “I'm not complaining, but it's just that many of us tended to starve ourselves on race weekends.
"Even in training we could not really work too hard on the strength, because we would have put on mass. This allows us to train harder, to eat more," contends the 29-year-old.
"It's not like we're going to have beer bellies or anything, we're just going to be stronger and I think that's only a good thing."
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ajpennypacker
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I am so glad the new regulations cover for this. It was long overdue. It was ridiculous for a driver to be penalized by a couple of extra pounds. Also, it will be great for these guys to look more like athletes. Drivers like Ocon, Webber, Hulkenberg had to be ridiculously skinny.