Singapore 2009: Post-Qualifying Car Weights

The FIA have published the measured and declared car weights from the Singapore Grand Prix qualifying session and from the data they have provided, we can make a fairly good guess as to which lap the drivers will make their first pitstop, and how many they are likely to make during the race. Of course, this all relies on no safety car and usual weather. While the weather looks good for the race tomorrow, the safety is expected due to the nature of the circuit.

Williams reckon it takes around 2.5kg of fuel to cover a normalised distance of 5km in Singapore trim, and therefore each 5.067km lap of the Marina Bay circuit will consume around 2.5335kg of gas. Taking off the minimum weight of the cars from the declared weights (we assume every team achieves minimum weight and adds ballast) and also take away a couple of laps for grid forming and margin, and what’s left can be divided by 2.5335 to work out haw many laps of fuel each driver has.

From the table below we can see that most of the top-ten have elected to run a two stop strategy although Sebastian Vettel and Nick Heidfeld look to going for a three-stopper. Vettel, who qualified in P2, will undoubtedly be hoping he can get ahead of the KERS-enabled Lewis Hamilton before the first sequence of corners tomorrow.

Moving further down the grid we can see that the bottom-ten have elected to run a one-stopper with the sole exception of Vitantonio Liuzzi, who qualified right at the very back of the grid. Force India often split their strategies, as do Toyota who sometimes put an awful lot of fuel in one of their cars. This time it is Jarno Trulli’s turn to lug around a heavy fuel tank for the first part of tomorrow’s race.

The heaviest drivers on the grid are Adrian Sutil and Jarno Trulli, while the lightest are Sebastian Vettel and Nick Heidfeld.

Singapore 2009 Post-Qualifying Car Weights		Car Weight Kilograms	Fuel Weight Kilograms	First Stop Estimated Lap
1.	Lewis Hamilton McLaren	660.5	50.4	20
2.	Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing	651	40.9	16
3.	Nico Rosberg Williams	657.5	47.4	19
4.	Mark Webber Red Bull Racing	654.5	44.4	18
5.	Rubens Barrichello Brawn	655.5	45.4	18
6.	Fernando Alonso Renault	658	51	20
7.	Timo Glock Toyota	660.5	50.4	20
8.	Nick Heidfeld BMW	650	39.9	16
9.	Robert Kubica BMW	664	53.9	21
10.	Heikki Kovalainen McLaren	664.5	54.4	21
11.	Kazuki Nakajima Williams	680.7	70.6	28
12.	Jenson Button Brawn	683	72.9	29
13.	Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari	680.5	70.4	28
14.	Sebastien Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso	678	67.9	27
15.	Jarno Trulli Toyota	690.9	80.8	32
16.	Adrian Sutil Force India	693	82.9	33
17.	Jaime Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso	683.5	73.4	29
18.	Giancarlo Fisichella Ferrari	678.5	68.4	27
19.	Romain Grosjean Renault	683	72.9	29
20.	Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India	656	45.9	18