Where do I begin if I want to understand tyre tactics better? And what does the type of tyre mean for the performance of the car?
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For a race, there are 5 different types of tires they can use. The wet tire is for standing water when it is raining, and the intermediate (inters) are for damp or less water, between rain and dry.
Then there are three slick tires for dry conditions, hard, medium, and soft. These three tires are selected from 5 compounds, C1 to C5, but all teams have access to the same three compounds for a race. So C3 might be the hard tire for one race, but it might be the soft tire for a different race. Which compounds are used depends on the temperature and track conditions.
The hard tire has the least grip, because it is harder, but will also last the longest before it experiences significant loss in grip. This means the car can do more laps before having to come in for new tires.
The slow tire has the most grip, because it is softer and can form to the texture of the track better, but will wear down faster. Think about rubbing an eraser against paper versus rubbing a hard piece of plastic against the paper. The soft eraser will wear down faster, but will pull against the paper better.
The medium tire is a balance between the hard and soft.
A pit stop can cost the car more than 20 seconds between having to go slower in the pit lane and stopping for the actual pit stop. So when you stop to change tires, others will pass you. Then when you come out of the pit lane you have to make that ground back up. So there is a trade-off, you might go 1 second per lap slower on the hard tire, but it lasts longer so you don’t need to stop as often. Other cars might be changing tires at the same time, so you don’t lose or gain time against them. If there is a safety car, everyone is going slower and you lose less time doing a pit stop (maybe 16 seconds), so you can hope for a convenient safety car if you need to make a risky move.
Then you also have to consider when others will pit. If they pit before you, you will get open track that can be easier to go faster. If they go after you, you will be slowed down by traffic. But the more you drive on tires the slower they get, so if you come out on new tires of the same type as someone else, you will be faster. So you can pit before them, catch up a bit, and when they pit they will come out behind you and then have to try to pass you.
Tire life also depends on how aggressive you are with them. You can use up a set of soft tires in one lap if you go too hard in qualifying. So you can extend or shorten how long your tires last just by how you drive. Towards the end of the race you will see some drivers going slower than they could because they need to make their tires last until the end. The cost of going slower to save their tires is less than if they had to do a pit stop. During the race, you can push harder when fighting for position, but you will have to pit sooner for new tires.
Cars also need to use at least two different types of tires in a race (if no wet or inters are used). A team might try to do one pit stop, running a set of hards and a set of mediums, or do two pit stops using two sets of softs and a set of mediums. Or two mediums and one hard, or two mediums and one soft. It all depends on track conditions, aggressiveness, and strategies.
Temperature also impacts the tires. When tires are new they are colder and will take a lap to get up to temperature. While cold they will be harder and therefore slower, so when a car comes out of the pits you might notice them getting overtaken since they can’t go as fast. The weather also comes into play here. If it is hotter than expected you might need to use a harder tire because the soft will be too soft and wear down too fast. Or if it is cooler you might move to a softer tire.
All this is why sometimes cars will stay out even when they have no chance of being competitive, sort of like Lando in Bahrain last week with the pneumatic issues. By staying in the race the team got a lot more info on the tires than if they just stopped racing. They knew he couldn’t come anywhere but last, but it is better than a DNF, and they get to test the car and the tires. This will help them in future races because they have a better understanding of their car and how the different tires behave. They will watch other cars too, but will get better data from their own. It also gives the driver more seat time to learn the car and various driving modes.
I’ve probably said at least one thing wrong or unclear, so if anyone else wants to add, please do!
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