Tyres
Tyres are the most important part of racing alongside engine and driver. As these are the parts that are contacting with the surface of a track during a race, so all the teams are so keen to understand their behavior that they have a full dedicated team of engineers on the track and at the Team Headquarter just to analyze the full data in real time. These engineers are not only reading their own drivers data but they are trying to compare it with other drivers’ data so as to decide whether their driver’s position in the race is safe or not.
Now the basic information about Tyres that are used in current F1 Season by the F1’s sole Tyre supplier:
Pirelli
Pirelli is an Italian Tyre manufacturer who joins F1 in 2011 as sole tyre supplier after a gap of 20 years. They were asked from the first day to provide Tyres that support exciting racing with multiple pit stops. And they are trying to find a balance between tyres durability and doing more then one pit stops. Their efforts sometime paid off but other times backfired either on durability or pit stops.
Pirelli this season is bringing 7 dry compounds and 2 wet compounds which are:
Dry Compound
1) Super Hard (Orange)
2) Hard (Ice Blue)
3) Medium (White)
4) Soft (Yellow)
5) SuperSoft (Red)
6) Ultrasoft (Purple)
7) Hypersoft (Pink)
Wet Compound
1) Intermediate(Green)
2) Wet (Blue)
So these are the tyres named according to their characteristic:
SuperHard (Orange)
Most durable tyre but slow as hell could last the whole GP distance but no one would try that as the net return would be a last place finish.
Hard (IceBlue)
These are less durable then Super Hard but have more speed then them. They are design for tracks which are more demanding on tyre wear. Hard are design to last 80 to 85% of the race distance but because of lower speed most teams not choose these as preferred strategy. Only used in unusual circumstances where a driver suffer some problem in the early part of the race and the best strategy got compromise. Although this season these tyres could only be seen at Silverstone and Paul Ricard.
Medium (White)
Less durable then Hard but better speed. They could last 60 to 75% of the race distance and mostly been used for 1 stop strategy. Also a preferred tyre for those teams that are suffering tyre wear problems more then other teams during the same GP especially Mercedes.
Soft (Yellow)
The best of both Worlds less durable then mediums but better speed then them too. They are the real work horse of F1 and most teams preferred this tyre with respect to strategy making. This tyre is going to be available in almost all races. This tyre is the only which will act as a qualifying tyre when the track is causing more tyre wear. Softs can last 50 to 60% of the race distance.
Super Soft (Red)
These tyres are the superfast tyres mostly used on less demanding tracks like Monaco and Singapore. On the other tracks where they are used their main purpose will be qualifying. During the race they will become useless after 10 to 15 laps. Their average life is about 30 to 40% of the race distance when used a new set otherwise old supersoft can do only 20 to 25% distance depending on the track. This season they will be used as race tyres in Monaco and Singapore.
Ultra Soft (Purple)
As the name suggests they are one of the softer compound tyres that are going to be used this season. They have top speed but less durability and their main purpose to do qualifying but with not much durability they are useless in race condition. These tyres are used in Monaco and Singapore as secondary race tyres on other tracks only for qualifying and for 5 or 6 laps for those that have to used it as per qualifying rules.
Hyper Soft (Pink)
The fastest tyre on the group with the sole purpose to provide speed during qualifying, will not be used in many races.
Wet Tyres
Intermediate (Green)
These are grooved tyres to provide grip during slippery conditions when slicks can’t be used and not wet enough that full wets are needed.
Wet (Blue)
These are heavy grooved tyres to provide grip during rain but nowadays when rain started during a race Safety Car is deployed or Red Flag is shown and the race is halted. If the safety car is deployed during rain then all cars will put these on and run behind the safety car. Racing on these tyres nowadays is almost non existent.
After the introduction to each tyre compound let’s move towards working of these tyres during a race i.e.
Strategy Making
Pirelli announces 3 tyre compound for each race 2 month in advance and teams then decide which compound will suit them better during the race and ask accordingly for the allocation of that compound for their drivers. There is only one rule and that is atleast 1 of each compound has to be selected while overall the teams choose total 13 sets of dry weather tyres and 7 sets of wets (3 Wets and 4 Inters).
If we take Bahrain GP’s example:
Then you could see that different compounds in different numbers selected by all teams. Just look at Vettel and Bottas selection, Vettel have 1 less Soft and 1 more Medium while Bottas have total opposite. Still during the race Vettel finish the race on Soft and Bottas was on Medium.
Now please go on the Tyre Regulation Summary from FIA for further understanding the Tyres rules.
I hope this helps you understand the tyre compounds.
