Quote:
Originally Posted by Taxi645
Another driver pointing to the poor visibility with the new tyres:
“For me actually, the biggest thing is just the view in the cockpit with these big tyres,” he said. “To hit an apex in some tight corners is a bit more difficult.
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Formula Two have been running these tyres for two seasons with no problems.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Taxi645
Well, you could've said the same in 2016 when I was saying that going high downforce for 2017 (probably to please Red Bull, in their fight against Mercedes) was a going to be a very bad idea and they should have stuck with the ground aero concept that was previously floated around. Now we've had 5 year of cars being very bad at following each other
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We have had five years of
thrilling cars, stupid fast ("is that in fast forward?"), that produced racing at least as good as 2016. Those low downforce cars were like watching paint dry, they were just not exciting and thrilling.
They also looked ridiculous -- like they have been squashed -- at 1.8m wide instead the traditional 2.15m of a Grand Prix. 2m is not fully corrected, but it is a darn sight better than 1.8m!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Taxi645
but if it were op to me the cars would be 1,8m again.
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1.8m wide may be fine for Formula Ford or Formula Three, but for top class Formula One cars it looks ridiculous. For reference, the GP2 were always at least 1.9m (so 10cm wider than F1) even since 2005 as Dallara had more common sense than to make super narrow cars! Indycar & Champcar are 2.05m width IIRC.
Ironically narrow cars make the dirty air problem WORSE as the tyres are now directly in front of the floor, so you need more bargeboards and other stuff to push the tyre wakes out beyond the sides of the car and therefore the cars are more sensitive to the bargeboards and winglets working correctly. Did the '98 1.8m or '93 2m cars improve racing compared to '97 or '91 when they were wider? Quite the opposite!
As for advocating for 13", many teams ran 15" fronts in the 1980's when it was permitted. 13" is just an arbitrary regulation.
Of course it would be better if the total diameter was still 670-680mm (and 645mm diameter on the front, which was Goodyear had, but Bridgestone used the full 660mm when they came into the spoort),
of course it would be better if the front tyres were 245mm wide like in the 90's instead of 305mm and the cars therefore had a more rearwards weight distribution and were shorter.
The new rules originally had the front tyres at 270mm section width, down from the 305mm, but I guess the teams had their say and didn't want to redesign their stuff so much. The new rules originally had the maximum wheelbase at 3400mm, but the teams had their say and were only prepared to have a wheelbase of 3600mm (so ~100mm less rather than ~300mm less than 2021, wheelbase was actually one of the only dimensions of the car which was free choice under the old rules).