Quote:
Originally Posted by Tourer
None of which changes the fact that the current cars are big, heavy units compared to their predecessors.
|
They are. The 2026 cars will be closer to F2 size. F2 is currently about 10cm narrower, about 30cm shorter and about 50 kg lighter than F1.
Don't forget that at least 70-80kg of the weight increase since 2005 is more severe crash testing and safety stuff (halo alone is 20kg), so that weight is non-negotiable and applies to both F2 and F1, hence F2 cars weighing in at 750kg now.
LMP1 cars became tiny -- the maximum width was reduced from 2.0m to 1.8m and that Toyota is only 4.6m long, compared to 5.5m for a F1 Grand Prix car and about 5.2m for a F2 car. [Yet the Toyota LMP1 weighs 1040kg --
far more than any F1 car despite being smaller!]
By all means the FIA could mandate LMP1 dimensions (so about the size of the RB1) if the teams and the FIA considered this to be desirable.
Personally I think the narrow track F1 cars looked dumb and the wider cars, at least 2.0m wide, looked better:
2.15m track
2.00m track
1.80m track
That maximum width rule was death by a thousand cuts. I'm kind of surprised so many people were against the return to 2.0m track width and reinstatement of the rear tyres to their proper size in 2017. [Albeit the fronts are comically wide due to the way they were never reduced in width since 1992 but then were scaled equally with the rear tyres in 2017.]