Pirelli 2013

[stefan_]

I found interesting the fact that today in GP3 testing they used threaded Pirellis. I asked Paul Hembery about them, hope I'll get an answer too.

[Javert]

More reduction of grip, given the loss of downforce in 2014 regulations, is simply criminal

Slicks = OK

[raymondu999]

Don't understand half of it, but here's an excerpt from the latest Race Tech Magazine. To be exact, it's the cover story by Pat Symonds, a feature covering the 2013 F1 season.

The vertical stiffness of both front and rear tyres has reduced but the lateral stiffness has been cut considerably at the front and slightly at the rear. For the first time, Pirelli have produced tyres that are asymmetric and therefore exhibit ply steer. This has a similar effect to adding toe to the wheel as the resultant ply steer force acts toward the center line of the car. When the tyre is vertically loaded however, the ply steer force increases and when unloaded it decreases. This has the effect of adding a small amount of cornering force over and above that which may be experienced with symmetrical tyres.

In terms of compounds, the hard compound, now coded with orange markings, has both a slightly higher stiffness and a higher working temperature. As such it can be regarded as a bit of a back stop to the other three compounds which have all been made marginally softer.

[Jersey Tom]

Ply-steer is pretty much as the excerpt says. Standard design item - how much lateral force the tire generates at zero slip. Passenger car tires have varying degrees of it.

The spring rate bit is... well, surprising. But it is what it is.

[raymondu999]

Yeah I sort of thought it through logically and then I thought of one of those worm gears - which made this whole thing make a lot more sense. It would stand to reason then that obviously, as one side gets loaded and the other doesn't, the ply steer of that side gets greater as the tyre is pushed down harder, and basically generating more friction with the track.

[Sombrero]

I wish 2013 is the last year with Pirelli...

[raymondu999]

Everyone's been making a hoo-hah about the tyres this year, but this year (with 22 cars) people covered a total of 406 laps. Last year, with 24 cars, they covered 368. That's 15.3 laps per car last year, compared to 18.5 laps per car this year.

[Drewd11]

Doesn't look like the super softs are lasting a whole lap in Melbourne... It's gonna be ridiculous if Q3 contenders start on the super softs and then come in after 2 laps.
I think there might be a meme here:
Thanks Pirelli.
EDIT: Vettel did 14 but lost 3.5 seconds. Still only going to be faster than mediums for 3-4 laps.

[Dyanxx]

The new Pirelli tyres are garbage, and apparently once we came to Melbourne everything would work out fine, well today it certainly never.

[Huntresa]

The new Pirelli tyres are garbage, and apparently once we came to Melbourne everything would work out fine, well today it certainly never.

I dont understand... Do you want 2009 Bridgestones or what? 1 pitstop and no strategy ? When F1 has no strategy 40% of the show is lost m8! Drivers are suppose to be able to handle tyres and everything else, nothing more nothing less.

[raymondu999]

I thought it was interesting that Sutil who was amazing on the primes was rubbish on the super softs - and the Mercedes, who made the supersofts work better than the others, couldn't match the lotus on the mediums. I think we'll be seeing some cars with a similar problem to the 2011 Ferrari, which could only make specific compounds work. Or perhaps, the tyres have a very small "combined sweet spot" - ie it's easy to get into the option's sweet spot, easy to get into the prime's sweet spot, but not easy to get a setup that gets into both sweet spots.

[kilcoo316]

I wish 2013 is the last year with Pirelli...

The new Pirelli tyres are garbage, and apparently once we came to Melbourne everything would work out fine, well today it certainly never.

Bollocks.

Pirelli are the best thing that has happened to F1 in the last 20 years.


Contrary to popular belief, F1 has always involved managing the chassis/engine/tyres through the race. These days are no different. Its just a lot more visible.



I'm sure half the bunch complaining would be eulogizing over Senna holding off Mansell back in Monaco in '92.

[myurr]

I thought it was interesting that Sutil who was amazing on the primes was rubbish on the super softs - and the Mercedes, who made the supersofts work better than the others, couldn't match the lotus on the mediums. I think we'll be seeing some cars with a similar problem to the 2011 Ferrari, which could only make specific compounds work. Or perhaps, the tyres have a very small "combined sweet spot" - ie it's easy to get into the option's sweet spot, easy to get into the prime's sweet spot, but not easy to get a setup that gets into both sweet spots.

Think it's more the latter combined with unexpected conditions that they weren't able to set the cars up for.

[Huntresa]

I thought it was interesting that Sutil who was amazing on the primes was rubbish on the super softs - and the Mercedes, who made the supersofts work better than the others, couldn't match the lotus on the mediums. I think we'll be seeing some cars with a similar problem to the 2011 Ferrari, which could only make specific compounds work. Or perhaps, the tyres have a very small "combined sweet spot" - ie it's easy to get into the option's sweet spot, easy to get into the prime's sweet spot, but not easy to get a setup that gets into both sweet spots.

But at the same time as you say that it would be hard to get a setup that works both compounds OK, this weekend we had SS and Medium, and they are close together in their working temp range.

As seen here,

So in fact having them both work should be easier then if we would have had Medium and Hard.

[raymondu999]

It's not that simple. You have to take into account other factors too, such as circuit surface, how easy the tyres are to warm up etc. Those are just showing the working temperature ranges of each tyre - nothing about how easy/difficult it is to get the tyre into that range in the first place.