Quote:
Originally Posted by V8 Fireworks
Actually Le Mans cars are smaller. They were reduced to 1.8m wide in approx. 2016 IIRC, and they are also much shorter.
It was the wrong move for sure. F1 cars are supposed to be 2.15m wide  , albeit they are also supposed to be 4.2m long not 5.8m long (which is ridiculous)... 
It is a shame the maximum wheelbase regulation for 2022 was watered down (to 3500-3600mm instead of the original 3200mm proposal IIRC), as the teams complained about the "costs" of redesigning their 1m long gearbox housings. 
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They never should have narrowed them in 1998. That whole idea of fitting grooved tyres and narrowing the cars made them;
More unstable (unsafe?)
Used higher aero loads due to less drag
Had worse mechanical grip
It was basically the FIA's attempted sticking plaster for F1's increasing cornering speeds, which didnt really work as for 1999 they added another groove in the tyre, further reducing mechanical grip and to me a fundamental lack of understanding by the FIA of what makes good racing cars, either that or they was an ulterior motive. What they should have done, was to tackle the car's aero, however I imagine there was a lot of polical opposition to that.
I agree that the wheelbase now in modern cars is outrageous. They obviously dont want it reduced because that then reduces the size of the floor and they all love that floor for the added downforce, but I'd say tough to that, it needs to be decreased.
The upper surface portion of the floor now is approaching a flat panel, so they have loads of room to package a shorter wheelbase car.
F1 cars will always be fast in fast corners, where the current cars are not as quick is in the slow stuff and that is often where spectators can get closer to the cars as many fast corners either have no viewing or viewing from 300m away. What they should concentrate on is pace in slow speed corners, for a couple of reasons; increasing slow corner pace would have virtually no impact on driver safety, and secondly it would allow spectators to view the cars going quicker in closer proximity to viewing areas. One of the things that always blows me away from footage in the 90s is the speed of the cars through the slower corners, the direction change is fantastic to watch, however much of that has been eroded away now.