Why are the highest performance racing (F1) tires soft, but high performance summer tires for consumer cars are hard?
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This is a pretty good question. The ELI5 answer is they are specifically made for the expected conditions and minimum lifetime. When it is dry for F1 cars that have extreme gforces (turns,accel…) they want a “softer” tire that sticks to the road better. The trade off of soft is they deteriorate quickly. The science behind the manufacturing is amazing. Never mind airplane tires!
The factory tires on my car will last only 50-100 miles on the track, or up to 5000 miles on the street, tops.
So very soft race tires are out there for consumers and their street cars.
And let me tell ya, they grip like crazy. If it’s dry.
If it’s wet or loose gravel/sand they have zero traction.
If it’s cold (below 40F) they have no traction.
And they’re expensive. Over 2k a set.
How many people want to replace tires twice a year, and can’t drive if it’s raining or might rain or a little bit chilly?
That is why most sport summer tires are significantly harder than race tires.
Soft = good grip but easily damaged and wear out fast
Hard = worse grip but takes much more abuse and wears out slow
Race = only care about grip and not so much damage
HPS = need both
HPS more hard
The ultimate goal for a racing driver is having as much grip as possible at all times. That’s why Pirelli made 3 types of soft tires: Soft, Medium and Hard.
The Soft tires (marked with red strip) can get up to their ideal temperature within a couple corners because on their surface, they are very soft and “mushy” which allows them to get hotter quicker which in turn makes them grip to the surface like molten rubber. Now with the Medium and Hard (Yellow and white stripes respectively), those are harder meaning the surface is much denser. They don’t get up to temp as quick as softs but they last longer (softs last up to 15 laps depending on the track).
Now you might have noticed a pattern here. The harder the tire gets, the more it lasts and the less grip it provides. That’s why road tires are orders of magnitude harder than F1 because they don’t need anywhere near the grip F1 cars need to corner Parabolica at 250Kmh.
Soft=Grippy
Hard=Economy
Soft tyre means more engine power go to ground instead of slipping. Too bad they deteriorate quickly (soft rubber remember) so unless you are multimillion racing team it’s unrealistic to use it in your daily vehicle.
Hard tyre enable the user to use it for longer periods of time. After all, who wants to own a car that requires tyre change every 100 km.
Formula one tires (and card) only need to last for a few hundred kilometers. costs are also not the main drivers.
For daily use you probably want tires that save on fuel and last long enough to be viable.
They’re like hard and soft pencils. Softs = Higher grip + Higher wear, Hards = Less grip + Less wear
I mean, if you want to change your tires every week or less, then you can have F1 quality tires also!
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