Academic research.

[doctorsdad]

Hi guys.
I know there are some seriously clever people reading (and contributing to) this forum so here'e my plea for help.
I've committed myself to giving a public lecture on the developments in F1 over the last fifty years and one thing I want to focus on is the tyre contact patch and how rubber development has changed conditions there.

My audience will be senior physicists and engineers so I can't get away with b***it and hand waving.
Can anyone point me to publicly available research papers that explain recent developments?
Many thanks in anticipation.
Regards,
DoctorsDad.

[Greg Locock]

Do you know who is more secretive and has tighter security than the Defense Department? F1 teams

Do you know who is more secretive and has tighter security than the F1 teams? Tire manufacturers

Seriously, good luck.

Peter Wright's Ferrari 2000 book has some tire data in it, including Flatrac data.

[DaveW]

Pat Symonds might be a good start. He wrote a couple of interesting articles in Race Tech ("A Gripping Tale" 2010, issues 114 & 115).
Greg is right, however. Good Luck...

p.s. there is a final part, in Issue 116...

[doctorsdad]

Ha ha! I understand the point about F1 secrecy but I wasn't expecting those guys to bother writing academic papers anyway. I'm after the general industry stuff that the F1 guys were brought up on before they became whiz bang racing specialists. I'm trying to understand the developments made by the entire industry over the last fifty years not Pirelli's last season tweaks.

[Greg Locock]

Oh... I can think of no better intro than

https://www.bookdepository.com/Racing-H ... 0768012415

Not everyone thinks it is a great book, but I do.

[wesley123]

Maybe it could also help if you took a look at other racing series? It might help to better understand the tires in F1?

[cheechthechi]

Check out technical papers from SAE international. You'll be amazed at what kind of information you'll find there.