OT: Formula 1 tire profile, question Options

[Rand]

Somebody school me on formula 1 tires... why the tall sidewalls? In street tires, the more extreme, the lower the profile. Shorter sidewalls, less flex, more cornering traction... Seems like in anything except F1, the tires are very low profile.

[lapuwali]

I wouldn't remove ALL restrictions.

My F1 rulebook would include all of the current safety regulations for the cars, which have been very successful at ensuring driver's survive terrible shunts. I would, however, completely drop all rules governing everything else, including engine size limits.

Physics will take care of limiting power, by limiting available traction. You can make way too much power simply by using a large, slow-turning engine, which would be vastly cheaper than a 19,000rpm 3.0 V10. Better tires will come along, but I suspect we're close to physical limits now. Remember that slicks first came into being as an answer to the huge power from 3.0 F1 engines, and they were a great leap forward in tire technology, which hadn't progressed all that much in the prior decade.

Make pitstops impractical by limiting stops to 2 crewmen, so even a 1 tire change will take some time, and ban adding fuel during a pitstop. This limits traction by simply requiring tires last the race, but also allows tire changes during the race in case of punctures or flat-spotting. By forcing teams to start the race with 100% of the fuel they need, you indirectly limit power, and encourage efficiency. Fewer crewman also means smaller and cheaper teams, and a safer pitline.

However, doing all of this could easily produce cars that are nearly undrivable by humans (they pull 4G now, and CART's experiences at Texas World Speedway a few years ago suggest that 6G is a practical upper limit). You may end up with an even worse situation than now wrt to passing.

And you still get into the situation where one well-heeled team destroys everyone else. The last nearly unlimited series was Can-Am, which was eventually dominated by the Porsche 917-30 (all 1500 turbocharged hp), and everyone else packed up and went home.