F1 how many tyres

The success of Sergio Perez has shown this. The Mexican is one of the best at getting high performance out of aging tires, and it is one of the reasons for his recent promotion and contract extension with Red Bull.

If a driver can preserve their tires for longer, they can get more grip out of the tires while others begin to struggle. Drivers can change things about their driving styles during a race to preserve tires. The main parts of racing that wear down tires are high-speed corners and heavy braking. These methods have helped every F1 driver over the years.

However, these management tactics can hurt your race. Finding out how much tires will wear and how that affects lap times is a crucial job of the pit wall of each team. Currently, Formula One uses 5 different tires compounds. These range from C1-C5. The C1-C5 differ based on their grip and durability; the C1 tire is the most durable but with the least grip, and the C5 has the most grip but the least durable.

The tires used between each race change dependant usually on the downforce level on the track, as some tracks put the tires through a lot more than others. It means that the C5 is the softest of all, so it also wears the quickest.

The C1 I is the hardest of all the tires and will therefore last the longest. It is just the way the tires are designed.

This is the case simply because this is how Pirelli designs the tires. Teams have to be careful about tires graining as well. Graining is when rubber strips break off from the tire and then immediately stick back onto the tire. This creates an uneven surface on the tire, making braking and cornering much more difficult. It is much more common with soft tires and can be a random event that has considerable effects on the levels of grip the tires are given.

Pirelli also produces two tires designed for wet tracks. The first is the intermediate tire, which is the much more versatile of the two rain tires. They are designed to be used on a wet track that does not have any standing water. Intermediate tires are built to be very durable because they have to produce grip in much more difficult conditions than dry tires. They are much harder than any of the C1-C5 range so that they can handle wet conditions.

This strength means they do not wear as quickly as softer tires would. Full wet tires are another step up from this. This means they are even harder and more durable than the intermediate tires. They are designed to withstand increased resistance to give the tires a lot more grip in wet conditions. Often, these tires will also be able to last for almost an entire race, although they will not be enough to be used for a whole race.

However, wet tires also do something that dry tires do not. Quite often, you will see drivers on intermediate tires struggling in drying conditions. This is because as the track dries, the friction with the tires increases. Wet tires are designed with incredibly high grip but too much grip for dry conditions.

This means intermediate tires will overheat very quickly on a drying track and begin to wear very quickly. This tire evacuates 30 litres of water per second per tire at kph. The compound has been designed to expand the working range, as seen at a number of races last year, guaranteeing a wide crossover window both with the slicks and the full wets.

The full wet tires are the most effective for heavy rain. These tires can evacuate 85 litres of water per second per tire at kph: when it rains heavily, visibility rather than grip causes issues. The profile has been designed to increase resistance to aquaplaning, which gives the tire more grip in heavy rain. The diameter of the full wet tire is 10mm wider than the slick tire.

Also this year, each compound will be assigned a numeric code rather than permanent color assignment. The range will be numbered from C1 to C5, with C1 being the hardest and C5 the softest.

The compounds are the same as those introduced last year, which were designed to provide greater consistency over the course of a stint. For , Formula 1 cars will use seven tire compounds, including five slick compounds for dry tracks and two rain compounds for wet tracks. These compounds are identified by five different colors. Pirelli, which supplied tires off and on to the series from until , returned in and has been the sole tire supplier to the series ever since.

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