2013 Chinese GP - Shanghai

[ForzaFer]

Brawn thinks teams will use the soft tyre in q3. does anyone really think that? if the drop off so early in the race its pointless? surely it would be best to use the soft tyre as late as possible in the race? low fuel, better track.

Believe it or not when the cars are heavy with fuel is when they're at their most gentle on tires. Cornering speeds are slower, braking is longer, acceleration is slower, all the things that wear the tires prematurely get toned down. When the car is on low fuel it actually wears the tires quicker because the potential of the car increases. Now if you have a light car late in the race and you've done two stops for primes and say 6-7 laps to go as a midfield car in second or third place, then yes it's your only option to stay in the points to push.

After seeing the data, no one is going to want to race on the soft tire as it gains over a second for three or four laps, then it starts losing time, and by the 12th lap it's already slower than a comparably worn medium tire.

Not true. Cars use tires much more when they're heavy (at the start of the race) because they have tendency to slide more and tires need to cope with cornering forces (centrifugal) which are larger compared to low-fuel car. And that force is linearly proportional with weight.

[turbof1]

I recon 5 to 8 laps on the softs, very much depending on who wants to go 2 stops and who wants 3 stops.

I'm picking this picture out of the F138 topic, because it shows how astonishing the degradation is:



It really looks like a beaver went in there, put its teeth in the tyre and while the tyre was turning, it scraped a whole strip of rubber off round the tyre.

[khaliweed]

After the two fp sessions, I figure a 3 stopper for most teams. 8-10 laps on the option, and 15-18 laps on the prime. For a two stopper to work you have to do 12 laps on the opt and two 22 lap stints.

I doubt they'll get 8-10 race laps out of the soft tyres after they've done 2 or 3 qually laps as well, I'm thinking more like 5 to 7 laps if that.

Lewis did a 27 lap run on the medium, i think merc & lotus are looking at a 2 stop.

The front runners have to quallify and start on the soft, anyone on mediums is going to get jumped at the start then bogged down behind traffic.

Obviously they will qualify on the Soft tyres. Meaning they will start the race on the soft tyres(If I am not wrong). On the soft tyres, they cant do more than 10 laps. This leaves them with 46 laps to do on the medium. Hence 2 more stops. IMO, a 2 stop will not win you a race this weekend.
1st stint - 10 laps on SOFTS
2nd Stint - 23 laps on MEDIUM
3rd stint - 23 laps on MEDIUM.

I think Merc are trying to get rid of the Soft tyres as fast as possible and concentrate on the rest of the Race with the Medium. Thats why HAM did that 27 lap stint. #just thinking

[CHT]

you might have to include those laps in Q3 with the soft tires.

[turbof1]

you might have to include those laps in Q3 with the soft tires.

On which they push those tyres to the limit. The way I see it, you can only get 1 solid lap out of it.

[ForzaFer]

With 1.5 s difference between compounds does anyone think OOPP strategy is winning?
Soft 8 laps
Soft 10 laps
Medium 18 laps
Medium 20 laps

[godlameroso]

Take how much time is lost in the pits, lets say about 24 seconds, now you stop three times that's one minute and 12 seconds that you have lost. If you pit twice it's less than a minute you lose so you have to take that into account. If you're on a two stopper and you're losing pace at a rate that will lose you over 23 seconds your strategy failed. A three stopper will let you push on the mediums, and let you ditch the softs. Stop on lap 6 then go 22 laps pit, go for 20 laps pit, go 18 laps finish.

Teams use 7 sets of dry tires per weekend with two being used no matter what, that leaves you five sets, two options and three primes for qualifying and the race. Some might risk just doing three laps in qualifying only using the soft, and save the primes for the race.

Also what's up with these crazy times?! Last year pole was a 1:35.121, it's only FP2 and Massa banged out a 1:35.340. Anyone think we'll see pole in the 34's?

[Joie de vivre]

any picture of button's ruined pirelli tyre?

[ForzaFer]

Also what's up with these crazy times?! Last year pole was a 1:35.121, it's only FP2 and Massa banged out a 1:35.340. Anyone think we'll see pole in the 34's?

Depends on how will track improve further tomorrow. In 2011 lap times from FP1 to Q3 improved 5 secs, last year it was only 2 secs. But i also think it's going to be low 34's maybe, possible high 33's with some exceptional drive.

[Kiril Varbanov]

any picture of button's ruined pirelli tyre?

Didn't see that the Ferrari image is already posted, sorry.
Offical media pictures are quite short on soft tire shots ...

[flmkane]

The tyres are the same for everyone since 2007.

I really don't understand why people complain about tyres, if they really think that their favorite driver or car is loosing and the fault is on the tyres...then they have to think that when their favorite driver or car won it was all down to the tyres.

Stop complaining the tyres are the same for everyone, and for us fans 2,3,4,5 pitstop are better than 1 pit stop.

If it was only degradation/grain, no one would have complained. When you design a car that can go 330kph+, but due to cheesy tyres, you compromise and underdrive the car, that's where the problem is. People watch F1 for flat out racing, not the dram of tyre endurance. That's not racing and whatever factor contributes for lack of racing, it gets blamed. Clear?

No clear not at all,

When a variable is the same for everyone for me it's fine.
When a variable it's not the same for everyone, then this is a problem.

If someone here can bring facts and proves that this variable is not the same for everyone, then i will complain for this variable.
This is just one more variable to the equation called Winning.

How to deal with this variable ?

This ia a engineering skill, driver skill, team skill. How a team will solve the equation called winning in a less time than the others when we have one more variable, or two or three on n more variables. This is formula 1, that's the way i see it at least.

In my job im asked to do also thinks that i wasn't supposed to do but i have to do them because the company asked me.

In the modern era of Formula 1 it's the same, the time when the driver had only to drive as fast as he can it's over...now a driver WILL have to drive as fast as he can but also to thinks about engine, mechanical parts, tyres, gear, strategy, fuel..etc ALL these are variables that the driver, the team and engineers have to deal with.

So basically you'd be okay with F1 being a spec series. Every variable is the same for everyone and they'd have to set the car, strategy and driving within those constraints.

That's just boring. I personally want to see F1 being innovative and fast. I want to see as many variable being different as possible, with teams having different tyres, engines, wings, body styles etc. However, there must be considerations made to safety and costs, thus there must be restrictions. But the spirit of Grand Prix racing at the highest level has never been about artificially crippling the teams and drivers and invalidating their prowess with crappy tires. F1 NEEDS to be a little mad. Otherwise nobody would watch it especially not casual fans, because we want to see crazy fast cars, driven by the best drivers in the world, racing their hearts out, not some sort of measured taxi drive where it's impossible to even defend against an overtake due to having tyres made of erasers.

Furthermore there has never been a time in F1 where preserving the engines, tyres, fuel etc has not been a significant part of the strategy, therefore I have no idea what point your trying to prove by your last statement. It's as if y'all have forgotten that even in the refueling era, with a tyre war going on teams were managing the exact same variable as they are now, namely the engine, tyres etc.

[Faustino]

Massa's time looked good, but the Mercs had already started their long runs at that point. The track temperature was up and more rubber was on the track.

On the medium tyre, Merc seem to have a clear advantage but when it comes to Q3 on the soft tyres, the gap between the top 8 teams won't be as big. Rosberg could certainly have matched Massa's time, as could Webber. I suspect it will all come down to timing. who gets a run when track temp is ideal. Red Bull have a knack for this...

[Blackout]

Massa's times are useless for us. He's not Chuck Norrris. He obviouly had less fuel like in Melbourne FP2. Maybe the Ferrari drivers split the work; Alonso simulates the first run(s) (full tank) and Massa the last one(s). I don't know.

[Blackout]

http://en.mclarenf-1.com/index.php?page ... Wguh5Pwl0A

[motobaleno]

I do believe that all people blaming tyres are not aware of the fact that we are no more in '90s...
Now the technological development, the simulation capability of the teams and the reliability of the car is such that if you didn't have these tyres you would know the championship winner in february right after pre-testing...and you will watch 18 gp with 0 overtaking for the top positions...


And, Actually you don't really have to go back to '90s...just 4-5 years ago, car reliability and simulation power of the teams were definitely smaller...