Good question. I'd refer you to the 1980s F1 cars, which carried fuel tanks that big. But they pad the driver's knees about where the axel centre line is now. That's no longer legal. The only thing I can think of is widening the fuel tank or allowing additional tanks in the side pods. Or...perish the notion, reducing horsepower, rpm limits and thus fuel consuption.

I'm glad I'm not making these decisions.

^No engine restrictions necessary. All the FIA needs to do is set a fuel limit and let the teams figure out how to get to the finish on that, or less. Has a limit been set, BTW?

Martin Whitmarsh was quoted after one race this year that the tanks would mean an increase of 150mm or roughly 6" to the wheelbase of the present cars.

One factor determining this is that apparently the engines and gearboxes are so compact that there is already in effect a spacer between the engine and gearbox which can be trimmed down. Maybe a switch or return to transverse boxes could also happen in the future. Edit: after a little thought the present aero designs at the rear of the car probably don't allow transverse gearboxes.

It's hard to say if the present cars even used the maximum width allowed for fuel tanks since aero and cooling seem to be the main factors in side pod design not the optimum fuel tank size.

6.1.2 All the fuel stored on board the car must be situated between the front face of the engine and the driver's
back when viewed in lateral projection. When establishing the front face of the engine, no parts of the fuel,
oil, water or electrical systems will be considered.
Furthermore, no fuel can be stored more than 300mm forward of the highest point at which the driver's
back makes contact with his seat....

6.1.3 Fuel must not be stored more than 400mm from the longitudinal axis of the car.

So based on that and some rough estimates about 36 liters can be underneath the driver’s back but that means that there is still a need for about 150 to 200 liters still to go in between the engine and the 6.1.2 point on the driver’s back. The triangle under the driver’s back decreases the depth of the tank from my previously guessed 500mm to 625mm by 100 mm so that puts the tanks at about 18 inches which is about 6 inches longer which isn't that bad but I sure don't want them to look like they did in the 80s...



That is a huge pig of a racing tanker truck... If the FIA let them bring back the 1500 hp turbos from the 80s I might be willing to suck it up.