18-inch Michelin wheel rims in 2011?

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?id=48192

Those would be some strange looking cars!!

What do you think?


Saludos desde Colombia.

I think they look great:



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The current wheels look dwarf-like with the 2009 rear wings and the extended engine covers they've all sprouted, so it would probably bring them look important again.

5 live were talking about this in friday practice last week.

i think there was also an argument in that 18 inch rims would mean tires with less air in them. which would lessen the impact of a ban on tire warmers.

I think the idea of 18inch primarily came from the hope that Michelin would be the supplier.

Afterall they supply sportscar teams with such tyres. However, i think what is more likley would be a compramise between 13inch and 18inch, something like maybe the 15inch we saw with champcar? Bridgestone supplied them tyres and im sure Michelin could accomodate.

I think there is a chance for more than 2 suppliers next year, and I hope so! But then again ive enjoyed the teams being so equal every race, and the winner of the race was often the best team rather than the best tyre.

A larger wheel diameter will certainly look much better! But yeah I wonder how a change could effect the smaller teams. As the article says, the suspension and gearbox changes are going to be huge! I would prefer F1 to stick with the current 2011 regulations (with an much less restricted KERS) for at least 3 seasons to let the teams who will survive, survive and the teams who will die, die.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

I think the idea of 18inch primarily came from the hope that Michelin would be the supplier.

The idea, believe it or not, came from the banning of tyre warmers. They wanted a new construction that would heat up quicker.

Michelin said they won't enter F1 without someone to compete against. We'll have to wait and see if they get offered something in return for no competition.

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Michelin, Dunlop and Yokohama all prefer the idea of having 18 inch wheels apparantly.

surely they would hinder a drives view


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They're not that much bigger!

i wouldn't have thought they'd be any bigger would they?

the idea is that the overall wheel+tyre radius would be pretty much the same. the tyres would just be much thinner to compensate for the larger wheel.

there was a photoshopped comparison in this weeks autosport.

something along the lines of this,

[www.motorsport-total.com]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/2010 02:28PM by marwood82.

marwood82 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> i wouldn't have thought they'd be any bigger would
> they?
>
> the idea is that the overall wheel+tyre radius
> would be pretty much the same. the tyres would
> just be much thinner to compensate for the larger
> wheel.
>
> there was a photoshopped comparison in this weeks
> autosport.
>
> something along the lines of this,
>
> [www.motorsport-total.com]
> 119.jpg


Looks like some kind of a pimp mobile :P

the only problem is it would apparently require a complete re-work of the cars' suspension and aerodynamics and also affect the gearbox and create more turbulence issues.

this could be a good thing, if they can successfully re-work the aerodynamics to help reduce overall turbulence, but it is quite short notice, and it would be at a large expense for the teams, which goes against the general cost-cutting measures.

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X (@ed24f1)

chet Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A larger wheel diameter will certainly look much
> better!

In my opinion a larger wheel diameter will look ridiculous in any "formula" car.. but I guess it is just the way we're used to see those cars.

Anyway, the Le Mans Series prototypes are already using them for quite some time now so I guess it won't be a major battle porting that into Formula One.

marwood82 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> i wouldn't have thought they'd be any bigger would
> they?
>
> the idea is that the overall wheel+tyre radius
> would be pretty much the same. the tyres would
> just be much thinner to compensate for the larger
> wheel.


exactly. the same as when you increase the rim size on your roadcar, you decrease the profile of the tyre as you increase the rim diameter to keep the overall diameter of rim + tyre as close to original as possible (unless you're trying to fill your arches to the max and just go out of proportion and get too big rims).

i wouldn't be against the idea in principle, but the photoshop above makes the car look like an A1GP car. without as many spokes i think it would look ok.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/2010 08:51PM by Muks_C.

I think it will be very wierd looking. But the current F1 cars are hideous anyway, so I don't really care. I'm surprised the tire manufacturers would want this though, shorter sidewalls would mean less space for them to put their logo on

*gets his magnifier*

Nice pic danm, got a bigger resolution? I think that makes (some of) the cars look fantastic!

18-inch wouldnt be bad if the rear tyres are bigger than now. today if you look a car form behind you may think its a Formula 3 car