Six cars in to the launching calendar and you'd have to say the most likely front runners are revealed so what do you think? Well, I've put together a bit of a comparison they see how they stack up against each other and perhaps get some idea of how some of their dimensions compare.
A word of warning first: I've resized the cars by tyre diameter in order to get the cars to roughly the same scale. However, this is not entirely 100% foolproof due to differences in camera angle. Furthermore, the teams have been known to doctor released images in order to stretch or reduce the wheelbase a bit. Finally, I lined up the cars by their rear axel. Renault are the joker in the pack as they never released a side on photo but I managed to find a picture of it in action although it had to be driving in the wrong direction, hence the livery is mirror imaged.
Wheelbase:
Williams seems to have the shortest (which I've shown in green) just a bit less than the Renault progressing right up to the Toyota with the longest. From that I'm predicting that Toyota are not going to have a fun time in Monaco and Singapore. I'm a bit surprised that the Ferrari appears to be shorter than the McLaren.
Nose:
Toyota come out shortest from rear axel to the tip of its nose (again in green) which when you consider the longer wheelbase shows just how stubby it is nasally. BMW also have a short nosecone. By far the longest is the Williams (they of the short wheelbase) which extends well beyond the front wing to give a considerable overhang. Williams seem to balance that by having a large overhang at the back too.
The Driving Seat:
So where does the pilot go? Again some variance here and with teams wanting to get weight to the front with the return of slicks they probably want to move him backwards to leave space for ballast in front of him. Easier said than done though when you're trying to squeeze in an engine, gear box and now a KERS unit. Williams again win this battle which suggests their mechanical KERS device might be a pretty compact unit. The drivers furthest forward are those in the Toyota and Ferrari - a coincidence that they seem to be having the most trouble developing their KERS? Taking wheelbase into account, the drivers furthest back from the front wheels look like being Hamilton and Kovalainen in the MP4-24.
