Michelin to change tyres before Monza?

[ghinzani]

Could it be possible for Williams etc to change tyres a few laps before the end and guarantee their tyres are ok??

[frederick]

If we take this talk of "Contact Patch" literally then surely the only way to measure it is to drive the car onto a sheet of glass, raise it, and look underneath to see how wide the CONTACT patch is
Tread width, wear patterns and appearance is irrelevant
Contact patch means just that

Q.? if you pressed the drivers faces against the glass of the Pressroom window whose would have the biggest contact patch??

[Peter Mallett]

Originally posted by frederick
Q.? if you pressed the drivers faces against the glass of the Pressroom window whose would have the biggest contact patch??

Who nose?

[Glen]

Ah yes, Frederick, but the point is that the cantact patch is much bigger after the tyres have been used. They deform and flatten, or so it seems, so that part of the tyre formerly apprearing to be the shoulder becomes the edge of the flat surface.

Max has referred to a difference in the way that Michelins are now being used - any ideas what this might mean? I remember thinking that the camber angles looked pretty extreme on TV - do you think that they have started to work that inside area really hard in order to maximise the trick?

[ASCII Man]

I think DaCube would win that one hands down.

[Don K]

Originally posted by ljakse
There is one little thing I don't understand:
If B'stone&Ferrari figured that it's better to have narrower tyres what's all this fuss about??

Hmm...

If you're right, that would prove that Bridgestone and Ferrari have nothing to do with this.
Could it be that the FIA are just trying to enforce their existing regulations?

[frederick]

well 270mm is pretty definitive.
Measure the before use and again after say 10 laps
if the tyres wear to the point that they are getting 280mm (and the tyre is still good to race with) then Mich. (or BS.for that matter) have to rethink their construction

i reckon Rubens forehead would put him up there with Cubey,
and the Schumi family chin would see them in with a chance

[ljakse]

Originally posted by ghinzani
Could it be possible for Williams etc to change tyres a few laps before the end and guarantee their tyres are ok??

Sure, if they could make that much advantage over others!???

[Red]

I think that after race means that the tyres are measured after race. Not only last set of tyres used in a race.

[ljakse]

From itv-f1:

Brawn estimated that the advantage in the wider tread could make a car half a second quicker.

Can somebody explain this to me??????
A guy, whos team intentionaly uses narrower tyres 'cos along with B'stone, they came to the conclusion that wider tyre makes to much drag, now claims that a wider tyre can give 0.5 second a lap!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????

[massifheed]

Personally, I love the fact that Max say that Ferrari had nothing to do with it, the Ross B says exactly the opposite.

Good to know we have a liar running the FIA.

[Glen]

It is much more complicated than slapping the widest available tyres on your car - a car designed for wide tyres may well be able to exploit the extra contact area and achieve a good balance, but a car (like the Ferrari) designed, for aerodynamic reasons, to use narrower tyres might have trouble adapting to wider fronts... They might find that the aerodynamics don't interact as well, leading to a loss in downforce or efficiency which is worse than running with slim tyres. I assume that is precisely what they did find, because Ferrari did try some wider tyres when they saw how well the Williams was going on them, but reverted to their old ways.

I have also read that Ferrari use very hard tyres, comparitvely speaking, so maybe their philosophy is quite different from the norm.

[Adam43]

As an aside: It probably depends where you race. In the past, when the tyre width has been reduced in the rules, we have seen an increase in lap times at most circuits. The exceptions being places like Monza and the Old Hockenheim. Of course it is hard to tell the exact effect because of the general development from year to year.

IIRC one year Tyrell tried running front tyres on the rear at Hockeheim to grab a bit more straight line speed. I think they decided it wasn't worth the changes to the rear suspension that needed to be made. Not long afterwards the rules were changed to stop this.

[vatuloa]

Ferrari today admitted to dobbing in Michelin not in the spirit of the game. Would it have happened if it had of been Minardi that dobbed in Michelin.

[Andrew2001]

FIA = Ferrari International Autosport council

[freud]

Originally posted by Andrew2001
FIA = Ferrari International Autosport council