Goodbye grooves; Welcome back to slicks!

[ShiftingGears]

Grooved tyres and narrow cars...uuurrrrrrggggg. Two of the worst changes to be introduced in F1 IMHO.

1997


1998

I'm sure the Williams team agree :

[ArrowsFA1]

I'm sure the Williams team agree :

Indeed. I blame the paint job

[raphael_2]

Are slicks going to make overtaking easier?

Can someone explain to me how please?

[Firstgear]

Will there still be the requirement to use both hard & soft compounds? If so, will they be using the sidewall for the white (or green) stripe?

[Somebody]

By reducing the amount of rear wing and increasing the front, will this make the cars slightly more oversteery in high speed corners and understeery in slower ones?

The increased grip will help I suppose.

The central section of the front wing is meant to be downforce-neutral, as I recall (all the front downforce will come from the sides).

Well, if I'm not mistaken, the cars will be larger again next season.

You're mistaken. The front wings are wider, but the track hasn't significantly changed.

Will there still be the requirement to use both hard & soft compounds? If so, will they be using the sidewall for the white (or green) stripe?

Yes, and I'm not sure if they've decided on how to mark them (last I heard, they were planning to put stripes around the outside edges/corners of the tyres - but that may have changed).

[ioan]

You're mistaken. The front wings are wider, but the track hasn't significantly changed.

What was the track width this season? I think it was between 1950 and 2000 mm.

Next year will be up to 1980 - 2000 mm. Not an increase of the max track width but one for the minimum.

3.3 Overall width:
The overall width of the car, including complete wheels and when
measured at the front and rear wheel centre lines, may not be less
than1980mm and must not exceed 2000mm with the steered
wheels in the straight ahead position. Overall width will be
measured when the car is fitted with tyres inflated to 1.4 bar.

Link: http://www.fia.com/resources/documen...EGULATIONS.pdf

[Somebody]

What was the track width this season? I think it was between 1950 and 2000 mm.

Next year will be up to 1980 - 2000 mm. Not an increase of the max track width but one for the minimum.

Link: http://www.fia.com/resources/documen...EGULATIONS.pdf

It was 1800mm this year, and it'll be 1800mm again next year. You're linking to a very early (December 2006) draft.

Here's the current (and presumably final in at least the major aspects) 2009 technical regulations, dated Jul 2008: http://argent.fia.com/web/fia-public...11-07-2008.pdf

The relevant quote:

3.3 Overall width :
The overall width of the car, including complete wheels, must not exceed 1800mm with the steered wheels in the straight ahead position. Overall width will be measured when the car is fitted with tyres inflated to 1.4 bar.

...is word-for-word identical to the wording in the 2008 regs.

[ioan]

It was 1800mm this year, and it'll be 1800mm again next year. You're linking to a very early (December 2006) draft.

Here's the current (and presumably final in at least the major aspects) 2009 technical regulations, dated Jul 2008: http://argent.fia.com/web/fia-public...11-07-2008.pdf

The relevant quote:

...is word-for-word identical to the wording in the 2008 regs.

My bad.
It would have been a good change. What a pity!

[call_me_andrew]

Are slicks going to make overtaking easier?

Can someone explain to me how please?

Well bringing back slicks while reducing the size of the rear wing will increase mechanical grip while decreasing downforce. The amount of grip produced by downforce is reduced as the amount of traffic around a car increases. Mechanical grip is not influenced by traffic. When dependency on downforce is reduced and dependency on mechanical grip increased, it becomes easier to have cars race in close quarters.