Quote:
Originally Posted by crmalcolm
Watching this weekend's race - I did wonder if there is merit in making the cars smaller.
Not only for street courses, but in general. If the cars are smaller (relative to the track) would it open up more variety in both potential overtaking spots and alternative lines, as well as permitting more 2/3 abreast potential?
A lot is made of the length of current F1 cars, but has the width gone too far?
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Its not particularly easy to find the regulatory history of the maximum width of F1 cars. Especially as it seems to me, that the regulations from the 1950's-1980's are virtually non-existent online. I find references that says the 1966 Eagle Mk1 was 1880mm wide (much narrower than today) and the 1975 Ferrari 312T was 2030mm wide (much wider than today and I think that might be a 312T in the image in your post). Sometime before 1998 the limit was reduced at 2000mm because in 1998, it dropped from 2000mm to 1800mm. I believe this was done to "improve passing" by making the cars a bit less wide. Then in 2017 we revered back to the 2000mm width. I frankly think the 1998 reduction was a failure (or at least it didn't seem to make a difference).
I think on a really really narrow track, that narrow cars may help, but the problem is not the car or track width. I think the problem is the width of the clean racing line which will always mirror the size of the car (wide or narrow). Off line you have a combination of lack of rubbered surface, rolled up rubber marbles or in wet/dry conditions like this past weekend, a high grip dry line that is the width of the car and low grip damp surface that is less than ideal when you are trying races side by side. Lewis having an off when going off line to pass Russell is a perfect example. The grip just wasn't there off line. And the line was the width of the cars.
Seeing multiple cars running side by wide is a function of size of the available racing line. You see it frequently enough on long straights in which grip levels is less of an issue. On the curves however there very much is an ideal line that is likely to produce the best result for whoever is in it and those who are not will struggle. Also, this ideal line will "track out" from the apex to the outside end of the track (or beyond given the proclivity for drivers to find extra speed by pushing/exceeding track limits). If you expect cars to be side by side, where exactly will these cars be when the lead car is occupying the racing line which spans the circuit from inside to outside edge? Short of regulations that say you must give a cars width, (and that doesn't apply everywhere I think) there are only a few places on tracks you can realistically run multiple cars wide regardless of the car width. I think this weekend and the clarity of the narrow dry line and off line damp part of the track really illustrates my point. With Lewis' sliding off is again, the perfect example.
(note... this topic more for the "how to fix F1" thread.
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Richard