Pirelli Strategy 2011

[ESPImperium]

no reason for tyres to have softer compounds ...just give them less rubber

I was thinking the same thing. Make the thickness less, or try and make the tyre in such a way that the hard tyres have more contact patch than the softs, whitch are more knife-edgey with more the grip in the centre of the tyre.

Im thinking something like the Michelen tyre that was developed for MotoGP where the centre was soft and the outer section was harder.

Can be done, but would mean a completly diffrent driving style for the drivers, not to mention how little grip they would have in the mid corner, more mistakes??? Mistakes making better racing, now that is a intresting concept.

But i was thinking about the concervitive theory, and came to this conclusion:

If tyres were to have a guideline for how long they should have, and if tyres were limited to each car each weekend (exept wets and inters) could this be adopted:

Super Soft: 12-18 Laps (+/- 2 Laps)
Soft: 15-22 Laps (+/- 3 Laps)
Medium: 19-27 Laps (+/- 4 Laps)
Hard: 25-32 Laps (+/- 5 Laps)

Each race weekend each car had 4 Options and 3 Primes allocated to it. Thats 7 sets of tyres for the weekend, meaning that the drivers that looked after their tyres in FP1 & 2 would see more options for the race. As for the teams that have their cars is Q1, they should have access to a single set of "super" hard tyres for the race, so they can at least go the whole race without stopping, give them a edge there, with the guys in Q3 having to start on the tyres they set their fastest lap on the set they start on.

As for wets id like to see 4 sets of wets and inters per car, with one set of either not allowed to be used for anything but the race.

Id be quite happy with a conservitive approach to tyres, but the ammount of tyres per car reduced to the levels above. Also creating a more random race patern, make the guys want to overtake as 17 of them will have to stop, meaning an emphisis on strategy that way.

[Belatti]

I just think it's a daunting task for Pirelli to be able to really complete their design cycle in the allotted time. It took Bridgestone a few years of both "hidden" and open development to have a tire that was acceptable and competitive to Goodyear, in the late 90's.

Must suck for the teams as well, probably well into the design cycle for the 2011 chassis without hard data to go off.

I remember Bridgestone tested a lot in 1996 to enter in 1997 with small teams. Only in 1998 they were at the level of Goodyear.

When you say that they made a hidden development do you talk about the Ligier JS41 in Bridgestone colours or the Dome F1?

[lebesset]

well , as already stated , the brazilian stock car tyres were just that , stock ; pirelli were not prepared to develop a special tyre and they were produced in the road vehicle production factory , so hardly relevant to the issue at hand

with regard to the difficulties of the teams , they have already been issued with data to aid their 2011 designs

if the teams accept pirelli's offer of more of the same there should be no difficulty for either them or the teams ; but if the teams decide on the more aggressive policy then I have to agree with tom's ...a daunting task ; some of the comments here indicate the range of possible thinking , and to arrive at a compromise which all teams accept is not going to be the work of a moment , and pirelli have already stated that development is therefore to be expected through next year ...with a single supplier all the teams will share the result equally however

people tend to forget [ or don't realise ] that pirelli have transformed themselves over the last decade or so; formerly they were an international conglomerate based on all sorts of rubber based products , who just happened to make tyres ..tyres were not even the biggest division; now they have sold off the other divisions and become a tyre manufacturer , investing the returns from their sales there ; market analysts say they have already become the market leader in high performance car tyres , and I am told by an old contact that it is also true in high performance motorcycles

so I , for one , think that there is good reason to suppose that they will produce an acceptable product ,despite the amazingly short gestation period ; I don't understand how it will be possible to have one tyre for both formulae , but no doubt they have something in mind

[Jersey Tom]

The teams already have the 2011 tire data? So in the past few months Pirelli has been able to cut their final molds, do all their construction development, tread compound development, and do all their characterization testing?

I'd be pretty impressed if that were the case.

[lebesset]

it is in the public domain that the teams have already been issued with the data they require to develop the 2011 cars ; clearly whether or not this changes will depend on the feed back from the teams , both from their simulation testing , and very soon from real testing ..but they had to know where to start

whether or not the compounds change depends on the teams ...as already stated [ and discussed here ] pirelli are offering different strategies , and won't be making the decision themselves

with regard to moulds etc , pirelli have always manufactured their own tyre building machinery and used to make some of their own moulds ...in any case F1 tyre equipment would not be subject to normal lead times , so I can't imagine that would be a problem

but if they achieve their goals in the time scale it will be , as tom says , pretty impressive ...I still am amazed that they are willing to offer the teams the choice of strategies considering the time scale

fingers crossed the teams are brave and that pirelli pull it off

[lebesset]

just as an aside [ and bearing in mind that they have only supplied all the teams for 4 years ] bridgestone say they have manufactured 700,000 F1 tyre in 14 years

[lebesset]

during practise 3 , Ant davidson said that this year's bridgestone tyres were particularly hard to bring up to temperature

let's hope pirelli don't make the same mistake !

[lebesset]

pirelli are having to build yet another new factory , this time in mexico

capacity will be 5,000,000 tyres pa ; if I understand correctly [ no guarantee [-o< ] standard tyres [ ie not tuned for a particular series ] for american racing will be produced there

can't wait to see preliminary results from abu dhabi on friday !

[raymondu999]

Interestingly, the FOM website pins the weight distribution down to 46.5% front, 53.5% rear. http://www.formula1.com/news/features/2 ... 11579.html

[ubrben]

The teams already have the 2011 tire data? So in the past few months Pirelli has been able to cut their final molds, do all their construction development, tread compound development, and do all their characterization testing?

I'd be pretty impressed if that were the case.

To be fair they probably fixed the mould shape and construction after the first two or three tests with the Toyota. That means flat track data on those tyres will be pretty close. I suspect the testing going on now with the teams is predominantly compound.

Ben

[DaveW]

Quote from Autosport:

"We have some additional tuning to do on the compounds and rebalance the stiffness of the tyre front and rear to improve the characteristics even more, but these were two fantastic days. We would have signed for this when we first started this adventure!"

Mmm....

[ubrben]

Well spotted Dave. I just hope they don't make the front stiffer (as I'm sure you do too).

It would be interesting to compare the initial Pirelli stiffness values vs. where they end up. It will tell us if F1 engineer really understand tyres and vehicle dynamics from a mechanical perspective, or whether they're happy in the leafy cul-de-sac that aero built...

Ben

[DaveW]

I suspect the vertical stiffness balance point has already moved forward (assuming slicks evolve quicker than wets). Pirelli may have a hard time satisfying both F1 & GP2 if they insist on using a common construction.

[scotty86]

Pirelli said all the right things so far, but personally i believe they'll just bottle it under commercial pressures and provide solid, unspectacular tyres that no driver will have reason to complain about.

[747heavy]

so intermediate tires will be back in 2011, will make for some changes in race strategy and perhaps more pitstops.

- The introduction of a regulation permitting the Race Director to close the pit lane during a race for safety reasons
- The re-introduction of intermediate tyres for 2011
- Penalties to be applied to any driver who fails to use both specification of dry weather tyre during the race

(full statement here)