Why do your everyday consumer vehicles have tires with tread, but Formula 1 tires are smooth?
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Tire treads exist to help clear away rain and snow. Road tires have them to make the cars safer to drive.
F1 and other racing series use smooth or *slick tires* because it increases the amount of rubber and therefore grip to the road. This makes the cars go faster and brake harder.
However their tires don’t last, they have the consistency of hot chewing gum to help with grip which causes them to deteriorate very fast. Good for racing, bad for road cars. When they talk about hard compound tires in F1, these are still far softer rubber than you would find on a roadcar.
F1 cars do have access to tires with treads called Wet or Intermediate tires that are meant for wet weather.
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