I would bring back refueling just to shorten and lighten the cars. They talk about shortening and lightening the 2025 regulation cars. But how ? If you are packing batteries, electric motors and full tanks of fuel around, the cars are going to be heavy and long.
The 2010 cars were allowed to be 22cm longer to accommodate the bigger fuel tank.
Aerrodynamics is the main reason for the length of the cars. And there is quite a bit of space between the power unit and gearbox that could be trimmed.
The rules restrict wheelbase to a maximum of 3,600mm. Which means that the Mercedes, for one, is shorter than their 2017-2021 cars. 2026 regulations will likely have the wheelbase limit shortened.
The overall width remains the same 2,000mm as the 2017-2021 cars. Cars in the 1980s were 2,150mm wide.
The cars grew nearly 50kg in mass this year. Mainly due to bigger wheels and tyres and increased safety. They hybrid power unit has grown 5kg since 2014, the whole car ~100kg.
To save weigh I would drop 2 gears, and allow a set number of final drive ratios for the year. I'd also test to see the effect of running with and without the wheel covers. If running without doesn't affect the following car too much (the goal of these regulations), drop them and save a few kg. And try to save a few kg on wheels and tyres.
The energy store probably doesn't need to be as big as it is now. So drop 5 or 10kg for that.
Edited by Wuzak, 20 June 2022 - 08:09.