One wet tire choice!?

[slicktoast]

Is this a lame rule or what? What was this rules's positive intended purpose? Are we now more likely to see a red flag or safety car at Brazil if the rain overtakes the intermediate choice everyone is stuck with?

[Sodemo]

Its stoopid!

The amount of money these drivers earn! Stop complaining and get out there and drive you bunch of wimps!
Its easy, you go as fast as you can given the track conditions, if you overstep the mark then you pay the penalty (spin/crash).

They should race in all conditions, including snow.

[high contrast]

But it's the same for everyone!...I remember when there was only one tyre for wet or dry conditions!...Whats the problem?

Drivers job is to take it to the limit!

[Sodemo]

Maybe the problem is actually more with the wet tyre(s) they have constructed?

Both Michelin and Bridgestone have developed a new "wet", 1 tyre to be used in all wet conditions. I think that both have been conservative (for Brazil quali) with the amount of tread, given that in any season only a handful of races are wet, and those that are wet are only usually showery.

Both tyre companies have taken their "intermediate" tyre and added a few more tread blocks (effectively not actually), so the tyre is a halfway between a "intermediate" and a "wet" how far in between, I don't know.
If both tyre companies had gone for more of a "wet" tyre than a "intermediate" then they would be able to survive with standing water.

If they had done this though the window when the track becomes dry would shrink dramatically.

[Francesca]

yep I agree

[RWC]

I think it's mostly long term politiking by the fia.
They have stated that they want the tyre regs to eventually be a 'one tyre for all conditions'type deal.The current rule is a sneaky way for the tyre companies and drivers to get used to it.
Eventually the fia can say'Ok,we've proven that one kind of wet tyre can be safe-now no one can have objections to a single all weather tyre!'

[golem]

This was actually the result of the cost cutting meeting by the teams. Leave the FIA and Mosley out of this one.

And the wet tyre is not an all condition tyre. The teams get varying level of 'wetness' tyres available to choose from and according to bridgestone they tend to choose from the drier side of the scale. A more intermediate tyre. When it gets monsoonal, the tyres aren't fully equipped to cope.

I say it's the teams fault. They know they've only got one wet tyre so, pick a proper wet!

[Jay]

Oh man, they've only brought inters to brazil. If it rains as much as it did in quali during the race they won't be able to do it. It'll be Spa 98/Surfers 02 again..

[Sodemo]

An all weather tyre is just bonkers.

Can you imagine a tyre that was even MORE biased towards a dry (ie less tread) coping with the conditions in that qualifying session?

If they were even more biased towards dry they would be chewing their tyres within a few laps.

The only way to make an all - weather tyre would be to make it out of super-hard rubber, something like what you have on your road car.

[Maxmil]

The idea of only one wet/intermediate tire is bad enough as has now been demonstrated in Sao Paulo, but the idea of one ALL weather tire for race cars is plain lunacy. We have used these for many years now on our personal cars with generally good results. I have not bought a pair of snow tires since the early 1970s. As was observed above, the penalty is hard rubber, but the silver lining to that is that the life of a set of all weather tires has been extended to astonishing limits. I just changed a set at 60,000 miles which is by far the best I have ever done. The downside of the harder compounds is less grip which is manageable for personal cars but not so good for race cars.
I think FIA should overrule the teams here and allow both an Intermediate tire and a Rain tire.

[slicktoast]

If RWC is correct, could this be a way of policing TC since the harder compound would break away sooner and if some cars weren't...then bingo! Disclaimer: Remember I said could, I may be way off on this.