Tires Used in Formula 1
Tires
If you asked people in the early 1900s what the 21st century would look like, at least a couple would tell you that there would be flying cars. Well, unfortunately, we’re still a long way away from that. But we do still have good old tires. But tires used in the Formula series and other forms of motorsport are not the same as the road tires fitted to most of our sports and day-to-day cars.
The official tire supplier of Formula 1 is Pirelli. These tires
are engineering marvels in themselves as they have to withstand very high
temperature and intense forces generated during cornering for 300 kilometers (average
race distance). Pirelli supplies 5 types of tires to each team for every race.
The following
are the types of tires that the Milan based manufacturer provides:
1. Soft Compound Tires (C2): The C2 tires
(red striped, C standing for ‘Compound’) are the softest compound of tires that
Pirelli provides the Formula 1 World Championship. These tires are the fastest
tires in the Pirelli range but do not possess longevity. While giving a
significant performance advantage, they have to be replaced very soon as they
degrade extremely quickly. These tires can mostly be seen in the Qualifying
sessions on Saturday where one lap pace is put on a pedestal.
2. Medium Compound Tires (C3): The yellow
striped C3 or medium compound tires provide a balance between tire life and
performance. They can put in lap times somewhere close to the softs but will
almost always last longer and let the driver and team get further into the
race.
3. Hard Compound Tires (C4): The hard
compound tires do lap anywhere close to the soft compound tires and are at
least a second off the pace if used in Qualifying. These white striped tires are
however very popular race tires which if nursed and brought into their working
range in terms of temperature gradually can provide decent performance for an
extended duration.
4. Intermediate Compound Tires: The
tires in the C2-C4 range are designed for dry track conditions and do not
possess grooves. They have a wide, flat surface for providing maximum traction
in dry conditions. The intermediates are used in wet weather conditions during
moderate rainfall. The shallow grooves present on the surface of the tires help
it to clear standing water and provide traction in wet weather conditions. The intermediate
compound overheats very easily when transitioning from wet conditions to dry
conditions. At a speed of 300 kilometers an hour, the intermediates clear 30 litres
of water per second off the surface of the road!
5. Full Wets: The blue striped full
wets are used in extreme wet weather conditions when the intermediates would
not be able to clear sufficient quantity of water to guarantee proper traction
to these twenty high performance machines. The full wets are just like the
intermediates (also called ‘Inters’) but have deeper grooves and clear 85
litres of water at the same speed as the intermediates.
It is important to note that even though soft
compound tires are the fastest over a single lap, this is only when a new set
of softs is compared with a new set of hard and mediums. Tire wear or tire
degradation (frequently called ‘deg’) has a ginormous effect on tire performance.
A new set of mediums will always be faster than an old set of softs, a new set of
hards has the chance to match the pace of the old mediums and may also catch a
car on old softs.
Well, a question might have arisen going as
follows: ‘Why don’t we just run one set of tires to the end?’. Well, such a
scenario is forbidden by the Formula 1 World Championship which mandates all
drivers to run at least two different tires compounds in dry conditions. However,
one is permitted to run the just one set in case of wet weather conditions
These contrasting properties of tires leads to
the emergence of a variety of different tires strategies which greatly affects
the race. We shall understand these strategies in a different article. For now,
I hope you have understood all the tire compounds in Formula 1.
Photo by Benjamin Brunner on Unsplash
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