Ever increasing length of F1 cars

[Holm86]

I guess the main reason to why these post 2009 cars has been adding longer and longer wheelbases was because of the restriction in the bargeboard area. You get an advantage in moving the front wheels further away from the sidepods and floor, so the wake has less effect on those areas. And without the bargeboards to help moving the wake outside of the sidepods/floor you could gain an advantage in moving the front wheels further forward.
The increase in floor lenght is also helping to create more DF.

But now with these new regulations, allowing for bigger and more complex bargeboards, why not make a fixed wheelbase. It would be the penalty for every team. They would be much more pleasing to look at, and would be more twitchy to drive, not so much as driving on rails as these cars are today.

[godlameroso]

The cars released so far are just over 5,000mm long it's not crazy yet, that's about 45cm longer than a DB11. Or the same length as a base model Ford F150.

[roon]

The relationship between cockpit entry and front wheel centreline has a minimum requirement, the driver's feet may not be in front of the centreline and the distance from there to the rear face of the entry template is 1500mm. ( the survival cell is 1800 mm long , front bulkhead to rear of entry template, and the driver's feet must be a minimum of 300 behind the front bulkhead) I think it is allowable to move the survival cell backward from this position as far as you want.

The rear of the cockpit template may be no less than 1800mm from the front of the survival cell. So, yes, it is a minimum distance.

Those dimensions are not coupled fo front wheel centerline, as I read it. Survival cell could be moved backward. This subsequently affects bodywork dimensions which ordinate from the cockpit entry.

[henry]

The relationship between cockpit entry and front wheel centreline has a minimum requirement, the driver's feet may not be in front of the centreline and the distance from there to the rear face of the entry template is 1500mm. ( the survival cell is 1800 mm long , front bulkhead to rear of entry template, and the driver's feet must be a minimum of 300 behind the front bulkhead) I think it is allowable to move the survival cell backward from this position as far as you want.

The rear of the cockpit template may be no less than 1800mm from the front of the survival cell. So, yes, it is a minimum distance.

Those dimensions are not coupled fo front wheel centerline, as I read it. Survival cell could be moved backward. This subsequently affects bodywork dimensions which ordinate from the cockpit entry.

The coupling to the centreline is via the foot position which must be level with or behind the front axle and 300mm or more from the front safety cell bulkhead. So yes you can move the safety cell rearwards and the floor leading edge goes with it.

[Danlizzyman]

Will these new cars make it around Loews Hairpin I wonder??

[McMrocks]

However, i dislike the idea of stating a maximum length in the regulations. The regulations are much too tight anyway so we need to think of other ways.

I am of the opposite opinion - define maximum length, width and height and relax some of the other regulations.

For example, instead of defining the size, front to back, top to bottom, of the rear wing elements, why not define the forward edge of where the wing can be, a minimum and maximum height it can be and then the area of a bounding rectangle. So a team may decide to move the rear wheel forward to allow a wide chord rear wing, while another will want a short chord rear wing which is deeper.

Similarly for the front wing. Don't define it depth (ie front to rear), just the rear edge, the overall width and maybe the maximum height it can be. Big complicated wings like we have now will force a shorter wheelbase.

Easiest rule to keep wheelbase short: Rearwing might extend from RWCL to a point 3500mm(or rather less) behind FWCL