Daft F1 question

I can’t wait to see if tyre wear will have an effect on the ability to overtake in Monaco

F1 is going low-profile in the near future. Wheel rim sizes are due to go up to 18″, but I believe Pirelli have asked for a delay of a season or so. 2013 at the earliest, 2014 more likely.

I have to admit to be confused as hell when I could see Vettel, Hamilton and then Alonso just behind them towards the end of the race yesterday, but I was in a bar and couldn’t hear the race! They were lapping him though, so I’d have to agree it has got a little more confusing. Still thought it was pretty good for a Spanish GP yesterday, Button dropping to 10th on lap one, Vettel not leading from the start and being forced to race, Hamilton pretty mch within a second of Vettel for the last phase of the race. Loads going on!

I think the reason for keeping high profile tyres is due to the limited suspension movement current f1 cars have, most of the suspension comes from the tyres. Would be a lot of re-designing to go low profile i would guess, big commitment cost wise..
A lot of what is termed steering feel comes from the deformation (think thats the right term) of the side wall of the tyre under load, another bonus of taller tyres. 😉

I’m not a motor sport engineer, but I suspect high profile tyres are important for car setup/balance.
Understeer and oversteer characteristics are very dependent on tyre slip angles (the angle between the contact patch and the rest of the tyre/wheel). Slip angles occur due to deformation in the tyre, and I would think high profiles tyres give more adjustment in slip angle by varying pressure than a low profile tyre would.

Michelin were keen for low profile tyres on the basis that they’re more road car relevant. The F1 teams are against it to some extent because they’ll have to significantly redesign their cars to cope with the different characteristics.

18″ wheels are already used in sportscar racing (Le Mans cars), so they’re not unusual and can easily cope with the demands of racing.

The biggest thing to get used to would be the change of the look of the cars as this mock-up of a Virgin with 18″ wheels shows…

I was just about to say the endurance racers tyre are low profile and last a long time. peugeot at last years le mans were doing 12 laps in a stint before they needed re fuelling. The tyres were doing 4 stints before they needed changing. Bearing in mind a lap is about 8 miles long they were doing 386 miles on a set of tyre so well over a race distance in f1 which is roughly 200 miles.
So there is no problem with a low profile lasting the distance or being engineered like the pirelli to fall off of a cliff. there probably would be less marbles though as there is less carcass of the tyre to shed