When the "Formula 1" class started, it was a rule set for the engines. An engine class. In the early 50's they ran the drivers championship according the F2 rule set for a few years.
Brian Redman: "Mr. Fangio, how do you come so fast?" "More throttle, less brakes...."
Previous world champions Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel say Formula 1’s current high downforce levels and wider tyres are the main cause of wet-weather visibility problems.....
* I started life with nothing, and still have most of it left
“Good drivers have dead flies on the side windows!” (Walter Röhrl)
* I married Miss Right. Just didn't know her first name was Always
In 2017, when they added wider tyres and more downforce, I never understood the move. It's like, you know you have a dirty air problem, so you *add* downforce? Weird logic.
Mr_Ferrari wrote: ↑2 years ago
In 2017, when they added wider tyres and more downforce, I never understood the move. It's like, you know you have a dirty air problem, so you *add* downforce? Weird logic.
My thoughts exactly. But I think the original intent was wider wings with only a single element allowed (to reduce downforce). But the single element was outvoted by the teams and they somehow got them to agree to wider wings.
Michkov wrote: ↑2 years ago
Much is of the spray is generated from the underbody, covering the wheels will solve only part of the problem.
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The underbody?
To me, it seems like the wider tyres are the issue. They displace a huge amount of water.
Modern F1 cars are now bigger than a Ford F150 pickup truck. They're not much wider than they have been in the past, but they are considerably longer. The longer they are, the more downforce they generate, at the expense of agility. That means races at tracks like Monaco will get worse and worse every year. And they cannot shorten the cars because of packaging the V6 engines, all the turbo/hybrid systems + a fuel tank big enough to complete a whole race.
Next year they will be up to 10cm shorter by the regulations, which is a marginal improvement at best.