Once we’ve got to grips with tyre dynamics, the next area of vehicle dynamics is racecar suspension.
The Racing Point RP20’s front suspension at the Australian grand prix

This article will concentrate on the combined wheel and tyre assembly, the structural suspension members and explore the influence of static geometry parameters on performance. Other suspension attributes such as Kinematics (including structural compliance), springs and dampers warrant their own articles and will be covered later on in this vehicle dynamics article series.

Wheel sizing
So from the ground up, let?s start with wheel sizing. From the tyre dynamics article, it should now be clear that the greatest contact patch size is desirable from a dynamics point of view. However in a practical sense there are implications; clearly a physical limit on wheel diameter and width exists. Width and diameter are usually limited, directly or indirectly to a maximum size by the regulations. But let?s ignore that for a moment and concentrate on the theory: more contact area on a given tyre means a higher cornering stiffness. A fact that can be exploited both in adjusting the balance of a chassis and improving absolute lateral acceleration.

For example; the rear-biased centre of mass (CoM) present on mid and rear engined cars would normally display an oversteering balance with equal tyre width on all four wheels as the yawing moments are unbalanced. H...