Absolutley. the force level creates the shear stress in the tyre tread and that is chiefly responsible for the wear, excluding wheel spin.hardingfv32 wrote:"There are three primary factors; tire force level, pavement texture and tire surface temperature. The major factor of these three is the sustained or instantaneous tire force level. Accelerometer measurements show that cornering or lateral forces are chiefly responsible for wear in contrast to longitudinal (driving and braking) forces and the test system is designed to operate on the basis of such cornering forces. The wear rate depdnds on tire cornering force raised to an exponent."
ACCELERATED TIRE WEAR UNDER CONTROLLED CONDITIONS. 2. SOME FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE TIRE WEAR
Veith, A G, Goodrich (B F) Research and Development Center
I guess one could say the more downforce allows greater lateral cornering forces... and greater wear.
Brian
What seems to be forgotten is that F1 tyres work at coefficients of riction >1 which is actually adhesion coefficients. We're talking about mild glue here, and passenger car tyre theory does not apply completely