2017 Tyres revealed

[Juzh]

I'd say in 2016 all cars are fairly comfortable on weight and running reasonable ballast. Some cars had trouble in 2014, but then sorted themselves out. Williams said they ran a lot of ballast in 2014, so weight problem wasn't universal. It was mostly sauber and marrusia who struggled.
700+ kg is simply too much.

[bhall II]

Weight distribution is all but standard in the regulations (Art 4, Sec 2). That's one reason why wheelbases have grown so much over the last few years.

The problem, though, is that longer wheelbases make it more difficult to strike the right balance between weight and stiffness. If you get it right, you'll have a lightweight chassis that responds well to setup changes. Mercedes and Red Bull tend to get it right. If you get it wrong, you'll have either a lightweight chassis that can't be controlled sufficiently or a predictable chassis that weighs too much to fully exploit its predictability. Ferrari never gets it right, and it shows - in my opinion.

Also my opinion: if Renault's PU is up to the task, and if the rumors about Red Bull's upcoming chassis are true - wheelbase that's some 20cm longer compared to RB12- it's quite possible the Championship has already been decided. (Note: I don't intend for that to be as bombastic as it may seem.)

[PlatinumZealot]

The wheel bases are ridicoulsy long as they are now.. Another 20cm?! If true Just wow... It will be like transit busses through monaco.

[PhillipM]

A guy at Manor told me the same thing - expect longer wheelbases, bargeboards doing more of the work rather than the sidepod undercut so they can shift components forward to try to get enough cokebottle for airflow over the rear diffuser given the blockage from the wider rears.

[thisisatest]

I used to think that making the cars wider was a really bad idea regarding passing ability. Then I looked at some old races. It's clear to me now that the length of the cars hinders passing in lower speed corners so much more than the cars' width.
There should be overall length limits.

[SiLo]

I remember Hamilton saying that the cars are so long now you can't drift them, or easily rotate the cars in a corner. It's probably why everything also seems so much smoother these days. The cars are a bit more lazy and less twitchy than they used to be because of the increase in length and weight.

[bhall II]

This is something I did last year for shits and giggles. Scale is approximated from known wheel diameters.

[Holm86]

This is something I did last year for shits and giggles. Scale is approximated from known wheel diameters.

http://i.imgur.com/RJHnARr.jpg

It's insane, and next year if rumors are correct, RB will add another 200mm to the wheelbase.
I really wish they would have regulated against this with the new 2017 goals of making cars look more aggressive. The totalt length of these cars, ruins the proportions and you can barely see the added 200mm in track width.
I think the cars would be way more challenging to drive, and fun to watch if they shortened up the wheelbases. And they would look better.

[F1NAC]

This is something I did last year for shits and giggles. Scale is approximated from known wheel diameters.

http://i.imgur.com/RJHnARr.jpg

It's insane, and next year if rumors are correct, RB will add another 200mm to the wheelbase.
I really wish they would have regulated against this with the new 2017 goals of making cars look more aggressive. The totalt length of these cars, ruins the proportions and you can barely see the added 200mm in track width.
I think the cars would be way more challenging to drive, and fun to watch if they shortened up the wheelbases. And they would look better.

but this is just a rumour. Anyway if that's true it will be one hell of a ride in Monaco

[Holm86]

This is something I did last year for shits and giggles. Scale is approximated from known wheel diameters.

http://i.imgur.com/RJHnARr.jpg

It's insane, and next year if rumors are correct, RB will add another 200mm to the wheelbase.
I really wish they would have regulated against this with the new 2017 goals of making cars look more aggressive. The totalt length of these cars, ruins the proportions and you can barely see the added 200mm in track width.
I think the cars would be way more challenging to drive, and fun to watch if they shortened up the wheelbases. And they would look better.

but this is just a rumour. Anyway if that's true it will be one hell of a ride in Monaco

Yeah, I know it's just a rumor. But even as it is now, the cars are just way too long imo.

[FrukostScones]

Interview with Mario Isola of Pirelli F1 about 2017 tyres and challenges:

https://translate.google.com/translate? ... t=&act=url

and one thing for sure, wet races will be a thing of the past:

We will also discover the behavior of wet and intermediate.

"On this front there are more unknowns. Although the design is similar to the previous generation, there have been many changes, and the teams will be asked to become familiar with these tires when there will be the opportunity to do so. One example among many: the teams will have to figure out the time of cross-over, since they knew perfectly with the previous tires and that will derive in the course of the season. But we will have to wait until testing or wet races. "

[BanMeToo]

Hmm. A lot of words from Mario, but nothing was said. lol

[BanMeToo]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.ph ... egradation

Formula 1's new tyres for 2017 are expected to feature 'very low degradation' based on early analysis carried out by supplier Pirelli.

As part of F1's wide-ranging technical changes for this season, bigger tyres have been introduced with new compounds aimed at reducing the need for tyre management in races.

Pirelli carried out 24 days of testing with modified 2015 cars from Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari last year, and it is optimistic that its new range will not suffer the same levels of performance drop-off as has often been the case since it returned to F1 in 2011.

"They are completely new compounds," Pirelli's F1 racing manager Mario Isola told Autosport's sister site Motorsport.com.

"We have encountered very low degradation, but these simulations are one thing.

"There will be a completely different performance window in which the teams will arrive in the second half of the season - where we often are on track with high temperatures."

As well as degradation, Pirelli believes it has also delivered on drivers' requests to make tyre temperatures easier to control.

Isola added: "On the few occasions there was overheating, it quickly returned to the optimum value.

"The drivers made specific requests to us about this - because if they were following another car in the race then they would lose downforce, slide more and then overheat their tyre.

"Our goal is for the tyre to return to a normal condition in a very short time, which will help improve grip.

"In testing we have seen that this target has been reached - but it needs to be verified on the actual cars, so we will wait for the first few races."

Isola accepts, however, that the data from the 2015 cars could be misleading because they "lacked a bit of performance".

Simulations of the Barcelona circuit suggest performance will jump from last year being full throttle for 50% of the lap in 2016, to 70% with 2017 machinery.

Turn 3 of the Spanish Grand Prix venue is also set to be roughly 20mph faster this year, based on early indications, turning it into a flat-out corner.

"Although the modified cars aimed to simulate the downforce levels we will find, we have not seen the true performance that we will have in 2017," he said.

"We have seen from the simulations that we have been sent by teams, based on patterns with the new cars, that the performance will be better than those we saw from the mule cars.

"This leads us to still have some question marks on the feedback that will come from the track in the first tests and the first few races of the world championship."

[godlameroso]

This is interesting, perhaps cars that are kind to the rubber in previous years will need a new philosophy to get them to work for 2017, or we might see them struggle to get the tires to work.

But I'm all for learning curves, it means less chance of one team to run away with the championship.

[FrukostScones]

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/minim ... on-870573/



Was this really planned?