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Old 16 Nov 2019, 15:09 (Ref:3940936)   #35
bella
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Originally Posted by wnut View Post
This was quite an interesting piece Bella:

12 sets of slicks for the Le Mans weekend - Same as F1 for GP weekend.

https://www.michelinmotorsport.com/N...-and-endurance

... the winning Audi R18 TDi/Michelin used just nine sets of tyres (36 covers) on its way to completing 355 laps (4,838km).
my original comment was a throwaway comment looking at overall number of tyres used by an event, since the figure seemed to be startling people.

but hey, let's go deep in this le mans example, further than the data you produce there. they're allocated 20 sets for the entire event, including practice. for the sake of the conversation let's use that as a figure for the gt cars too, so that's 56 times 20. times 4 to give you a total number of tyres. plus a margin of error to cover backsides for every size the field runs (spoiler: there's a lot of variation). then almost double it to include wets that they have to bring.

that's in the region of 8,000 tyres. assume around 600 per truck, which produces its own carbon footprint (and cost). imagine the number of staff (and coffee machines) you need to bring to run two shifts. the electricity needed to power the compressors to fit the tyres. etc etc.

at the other end of the scale is formula e. two sets an event - the mileage could easily be done on a slick but for some reason they're stuck on the whole road-relevance thing which is weird considering the cars are spaceships. or something like proper f3 or formula renault, where it's 2-3 sets per weekend. much smaller setups, one shift, much smaller transport requirements. helps that they take up a lot less space than an 18-19" gt or lmp tyre, mind.

but of course, none of the above series use tyres as the main tool to structure the race around. f1 needs pit stops, different compounds to help build a race. you could say to them "ok, you get one set of each compound for practice, then one set of each for qualifying and the race, and you have to run on each of them for a minimum of 100km." but then it's not a f1 sprint race is it? you're turning it into an endurance event.

if f1 is meant to be the peak of something performancey - technology, prestige, whatever - for the manufacturers then it is for the tyre companies too. if you want to neutralise that, and bring it down to the level of something like, idk, ginetta juniors, who run an entire weekend on a single set of road tyres that never overheat or go low on tread, then fine.
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