And when Williams dominated, and when McLaren dominated, and when Lotus dominated, and when and when. That's the nature of this sport. Same as it always was.
He may have been more worried about fuel use than saving his engine, we'll never know for sure. Both McLaren drivers complained their results were tainted by the need to save fuel and for all we know it may have been a problem for most drivers. On the other hand, given the expectation he'll have to take power unit penalties before most of his rivals, I'd say it's about 50:50.
2017 tires being tested. For the test, they also fitted a wide rear wing, side skirts and probably a few other things to pseudo-simulate the 2017 configuration.
With those tires I think we're going to see more passing in the corners just because of the mechanical grip improvement.
They're still running 13" wheels? I guess that's why they can run such stiff suspension, the tires absorb all the movement....
Methinks Pit times will go up a smidge, or the Pit Crewmen will increase in physical size. Gonna need some serious grunt to move one of those off and on a hub.
Steve, I was trying to find what the old wide tires were but all I came up with were specs from the grooved until now: grooved F 355 mm R 380 mm slicks F 355mm R 380mm new slicks F 355mm R 460mm Any idea what the old "wide" tires were?
I don't know how wide they were in the "good old days" but here are the current and future numbers according to formula1.com: Those are increases of about 25% in width. I did see one reference that claimed they were 18 inches wide (~457mm) in the early 90s but I think they might have been even wider at one point.
I just read a story about Red Bull's improvements. The most interesting part was how they approach set up. They set the rake and the spring rate so that at the highest speed of any corner the car will have full rake and maximum down force. Then as the speed increase on a straight the additional down force pushes the rake flatter stalling the wing and reducing the drag. Thus gaining speed. I'm sure others are doing this too. But RB has been has been playing the rake game longer and probably have it dialed in better.
How much extra do you have to pay the bartender to get a head on your beer to match the hair on your head?