Tires confirmed for first 4 races

Ryan Mark Smith · Feb 14, 2013

Austrialia: medium, supersoft
Malaysia: hard, medium
China: medium, soft
Bahrain: hard, soft

Supersofts at Melbourne, thoughts on this guys?

-Ryan

Hampus Andersson · Feb 14, 2013

Ryan Mark Smith said:
Supersofts at Melbourne, thoughts on this guys?

Yea... one hell of a race

will be great seeing the cars on the fastest compound as well.

Ryan Mark Smith · Feb 14, 2013

Hampus Andersson said:
Yea... one hell of a race

will be great seeing the cars on the fastest compound as well.

Indeed, with the tire wear being an issue at Melbourne, it will a test to see who can make the tires last for longer, and get them to optimum temperature. (But heck, that goes for every race

)

Hampus Andersson · Feb 14, 2013

Everyone will start on that, go all out then get in and get mediums on and that´s where the tire saving really comes into play.

Will be interesting to see.

Kartik Sri Harsha · Feb 14, 2013

It was good as Pirelli going on aggressive approach.
but i think Australia mostly be a 2 stopper than a 3 stopper.

Karl Fuss · Feb 14, 2013

Kartik Sri Harsha said:
It was good as Pirelli going on aggressive approach.
but i think Australia mostly be a 2 stopper than a 3 stopper.

I think we could see more 3 stoppers than you think in Australia this year. Pirelli have made the tyres a bit softer this year in the hopes of increasing the pit stops and improving the lap times (0.5 secs/lap)
Last year in Australia it was Button, Vettel, Hamilton on the podium. Both McLaren's went Soft Medium Medium and Vettel went Soft Soft Medium
you'd think that whatever laps they lose by running the super-soft instead of the soft they will just split up between the medium tyres and run SS / M / M. But if the tyres are softer they wont go as far.... could be interesting watching some teams try to stretch the tyres like Ferrari did at Montreal last year.
I can't wait for the season to start so we can see what the tyres will really be like....

Ryan Mark Smith · Feb 14, 2013

Karl Fuss said:
I think we could see more 3 stoppers than you think in Australia this year. Pirelli have made the tyres a bit softer this year in the hopes of increasing the pit stops and improving the lap times (0.5 secs/lap)
Last year in Australia it was Button, Vettel, Hamilton on the podium. Both McLaren's went Soft Medium Medium and Vettel went Soft Soft Medium
you'd think that whatever laps they lose by running the super-soft instead of the soft they will just split up between the medium tyres and run SS / M / M. But if the tyres are softer they wont go as far.... could be interesting watching some teams try to stretch the tyres like Ferrari did at Montreal last year.
I can't wait for the season to start so we can see what the tyres will really be like....

On the F1 website, I saw a picture of an Orange marked tyre, anybody know what compound that is?

zwieja · Feb 14, 2013

Ryan Mark Smith said:
On the F1 website, I saw a picture of an Orange marked tyre, anybody know what compound that is?

Hard.

Ryan Mark Smith · Feb 14, 2013

zwieja said:
Hard.

So essentially it's a super-hard compound?

Karl Fuss · Feb 14, 2013

It's just a new colour for the Hard compound... instead of the Silver which was hard do distinguish from the White on the Medium compound tyres.

Ryan Mark Smith · Feb 14, 2013

Karl Fuss said:
It's just a new colour for the Hard compound... instead of the Silver which was hard do distinguish from the White on the Medium compound tyres.

Makes sense.

Karl Fuss · Feb 14, 2013

Ryan Mark Smith said:
Makes sense.

I like the looks of the Orange. And there won't ever be a problem mixing it up with the Red colour of the Super Soft tyres because they will never run those two compounds at the same event.

Hampus Andersson · Feb 14, 2013

Another interesting fact is that despite it´s called Super Soft,
It´s still light years more harder then the tire you find on your own car.

Kartik Sri Harsha · Feb 15, 2013

Karl Fuss said:
I think we could see more 3 stoppers than you think in Australia this year. Pirelli have made the tyres a bit softer this year in the hopes of increasing the pit stops and improving the lap times (0.5 secs/lap)
Last year in Australia it was Button, Vettel, Hamilton on the podium. Both McLaren's went Soft Medium Medium and Vettel went Soft Soft Medium
you'd think that whatever laps they lose by running the super-soft instead of the soft they will just split up between the medium tyres and run SS / M / M. But if the tyres are softer they wont go as far.... could be interesting watching some teams try to stretch the tyres like Ferrari did at Montreal last year.
I can't wait for the season to start so we can see what the tyres will really be like....

Ya I was thinking it could be a SS/M/M for front runners. But if they are Very quickly degrading then the teams will change to SS/M/M/SS. Also if this was true them Malaysia could be a Very Tight race in terms of Degradation with M/M/H.

Ryan Mark Smith · Feb 15, 2013

Kartik Sri Harsha said:
Ya I was thinking it could be a SS/M/M for front runners. But if they are Very quickly degrading then the teams will change to SS/M/M/SS. Also if this was true them Malaysia could be a Very Tight race in terms of Degradation with M/M/H.

Most definitely. Malaysia, the front runners may go: H/M/H again maybe. Not sure if they would need that last stop, I think that'd be mainly for caution/safety for the tyres.

Metalfreaky · Feb 15, 2013

Karl Fuss said:
I think we could see more 3 stoppers than you think in Australia this year.

I hope not. 2-3 stops per race are ideal for the viewer in my opinion.

Hampus Andersson said:
Another interesting fact is that despite it´s called Super Soft,
It´s still light years more harder then the tire you find on your own car.

Your sure about this? Always thought that racing tiers in general are more softer than road tires.

Hampus Andersson · Feb 15, 2013

Metalfreaky said:
Your sure about this? Always thought that racing tiers in general are more softer than road tires.

Yes, positive.
If F1 had run road tires they would turn to mush quite fast.

Knut Omdal Tveito · Feb 15, 2013

Do you have any link for this info Hampus?

Ryan Mark Smith · Feb 15, 2013

Hampus Andersson said:
Yes, positive.
If F1 had run road tires they would turn to mush quite fast.

Now that, is something I'd love to see! F1 on road tires, c'mon Bernie!

Hampus Andersson · Feb 15, 2013

Knut Omdal Tveito said:
Do you have any link for this info Hampus?

Nope no hard link to give you right now but i am looking for one.
You can PM Jersey Tom on F1Technical, he used to work for a tire company, can´t remember the name but it ended with ..stone. Could be fire or bridge.

But it´s not that hard to realize. More loading, harder tires.
Same reason NASCAR tires are tougher and stiffer then F1 tires.

Road tires on an F1 car would turn to mush because they are way too soft to last any respectable distance.