Tyre Suggestions

[mertol]

I think tire war and no refueling would mean no stops at all. If they remove the retarded rule for using both compounds that is. There could be budget limits for tire suppliers too if it is so hard to find manufacturers.

[Sebp]

I think the main issue here is, do we want pit stops at all? And if the answer is yes, how many would be okay?
What I would like is no "artificial" pit stops as is mandatory with the two tyre compounds at present.
It should be possible to have compounds available that allow different strategies imo. Aggresive style vs. tyre wisperer. Ideally both driving styles would provide equal chances of succeeding.

[Pup]

The issue with a single manufacturer is that they have to come up with gimmicks to make viewers pay attention to the tires. Otherwise, there's no point in them being in the sport.

The issue with having two tire manufacturers (can we please stop the "tire war" nonsense?) is of course the cost of competition. Michelin is up for it (good for them), but it seems that no one else is (imagine my making chicken noises at this point).

I can think of three possible solutions...

1) Pay for the tires. That way the tire companies have a reason other than advertising to be in the sport.

2) Budget cap the tire companies. I hate budget caps in general, but I suppose it's an option.

3) As always, Bernie could try doing his job for once and add enough value to the sport to make the cost of competition worthwhile.

My gut feeling is that paying for the tires is the best solution. That way, if there's only one manufacturer, they can be paid to make a decent tire and forgo all the marketing gimmicks. If they find they can't make a decent tire, well then shame on them for being Pirelli. Alternatively, the added income could bring down the cost of competing enough to encourage other manufacturers to join in.

Surely the sport has enough money to pay for a tire supply, no?

A budget cap, on the other hand, is probably impossible to police and I really wish you would all stop laughing at the mere suggestion that Bernie might use some of his money to promote the sport in some way.

Though one way of capping the cost might be to homologate the tires. That would be a bit crappy for the guys who picked the wrong manufacturer, but such is life.

If you want to have pit stops, forget the tires and bring back refueling. Safety was never a real issue and the races were certainly more suspenseful when there was a hint of strategy involved. Or heck, just require one or two pit stops like some other series do. Silly, I know, but they do it.

My personal preference would be to have the refueling and have more than one tire manufacturer. In fact, I'd like to see the teams not be tied to a specific manufacturer. I'd like to see both companies bring their wares to market and then the teams/drivers decide each weekend which ones work best for their cars.

Ah, but I'm a dreamer...

[Pup]

4) The FIA could make a tire standard across several series so that the manufacturers aren't making tires specific to F1.

There's probably a 5 around somewhere, too, but I can't find it right now.

[Sebp]

In fact, I'd like to see the teams not be tied to a specific manufacturer. I'd like to see both companies bring their wares to market and then the teams/drivers decide each weekend which ones work best for their cars.

This would be awesome! =D>

Don't agree with the refuelling business though...I want my turbo boost!

[turbof1]

I would like to see tyres which wear is less correlated with how hard you push them. So tyres that degrade based on how long you use them instead of how hard. I don't know if that is possible though.

[zonk]

I would like to see tyres which wear is less correlated with how hard you push them. So tyres that degrade based on how long you use them instead of how hard. I don't know if that is possible though.

No tire warmers and a thermal degradation after a certain time (approx 20min) after reaching working range.

[notsofast]

Just let the teams buy whatever tires they like, from whichever supplier they prefer, as long as those tires are available on the open market and are popular enough that they sell at least 1000 tires a year outside F1. In other words, no custom tires. And no restrictions on tire size, etc.

[Cam]

4) The FIA could make a tire standard across several series so that the manufacturers aren't making tires specific to F1.

This is a great idea. I'm sure it's possible that all FIA open wheel series can have the same rim and tyre specs, maybe not this year, but next year. This would allow any tyre company to turn up on race day and offer their wears - for any series. Teams could choose per track if they wanted too - and pay for them in cash on the day. This would see a 'spec' tyre that any tyre company could join into, give the teams a wider range of choice, is cost competitive as there is a market across all open wheel series, is cost benefit as the tire companies don't have to change specs each year, plus, we get to stop this shenanigans with what we have now.

[raymondu999]

Just let the teams buy whatever tires they like, from whichever supplier they prefer, as long as those tires are available on the open market and are popular enough that they sell at least 1000 tires a year outside F1. In other words, no custom tires. And no restrictions on tire size, etc.

are you suggesting putting road-legal, commercial tyres on an F1 car?

[mx_tifoso]

A spec tire across multiple series? A road legal tyre?

F1 is a specialized series and there isn't any other car out there that can do what it does. The only thing that compares is GP2 and even that is slower than the top 3 cars that we have. And that's it, because the other prototype series are in the endurance category so that itself renders the tire to be of a completely different specification.

And a road legal tire? How did that thought even come into existence when you have to consider that F1 cars achieve up to 5g's in breaking, accelerating, and turning?

And something that I really like about F1 is the 13 inch wheel, I think it's unique and the sidewall profile is so meaty!

[Cam]

With Pirelli already complaining about it's costs, I guess any ideas that can cut overall costs while minimising un-due effects on racing, should be considered. There's no way a road tyre would work, but with some careful planning and changes, a spec tyre might work. I doubt lower categories would complain of getting the same rubber as F1. Having a compound that was more resilient and went all day, would put the focus back on the cars.

It'll probably never happen, but it's ideas like these which F1 need to consider if they're not going to price themselves out of all suppliers. We don't see too many suppliers putting their hands up to take over the tire contract.....

Edit: yep, keep the 13" profile - it's a hallmark.

[StrikeForceF1]

I just want to say that it is not Pirelli's Fault for these tyres. They did exactly what they were asked to do. Everyone remembers the race in Canada 2010 where the Bridgestones couldn't hold hold up for the entire race and we seen lots of pitstops and strategies. Everyone loved that race and there was born the inspiration for what we have currently. Bernie has been going on for a long time about how to make races more exciting even suggesting artifical sprinklers and shortcuts. For all the critics of F1 I want to say this...YOU CANNOT PLEASE EVERYONE ! ! ! ....when we had the boring processional races, everyone jumped on the gravy train to make races more exiciting and these were the processes put in place to do just that...now again everyone is getting on the gravy train that the tyres are s#@t and that pirelli are pathetic and that racing is manufactured. Just remember this is what you asked for and you got it.
The truth is that there is not a perfect Formula 1. There are always going to be era's in this business. This is a team sport and a prototype series which is supposed to be at the leading edge of technology. Yes there is a lot of rules, yes there is alot of things that are wrong or not perfect but the 1 thing F1 is not is that it is not a spec series....and if that is what you want to watch than there are spec series out there for you to watch. This is a prototype series and a team sport where everything put together, the car, the aerodynamics, the mechanicals, the driver, the fuel, the tyres, the bosses, the engineers, the mechanics, the pit girls must be made to work together and no one single element determines success. It is the whole package. Ok I just threw in the pit girls to break up the seriousness of what i am saying .
Lets look at it this way -
If we go to a durable tyre that lasts the entire race it would be boring, one team would probably win everything. It has been done already- Bridgestone 2010.
If we have refueling with no tyre changes we would find one team or only a few teams having an enormous advantage, there would be no racing anymore.
If we have a tyre war we would see tyres get grippier and more durable and one manufacturer would have more teams than the others by virtue of teams wanting the best rubber, been done already bridgestone/michelan days. Not mention the cost would spiral uncontrolably and again become a tyre championship.
If you have refueling only and durable tyres(that last the entire race), you would have one or 2 teams and one maufacturer running away with the championship. Been done already 2005 and it only lasted a year.
If you go to refueling and durable tyres with no tyre war than you would have no pitstops as teams are already able to race with the full race fuel load and we go back to processional racing similar to my first point-Bridgestone 2010
If I have forgotten a senario please forgive me and correct me.
For me I would like to see a slightly more durable tyre ie a few percentage points better, still keep the degradation, still keep the performance cliff and still have the thermal degradation and this years tires would be a great place to start as the warm up issues are alot better.
So what I think would be good is the tyres mentioned above(this years tires just a little bit more durable) and introduce refueling. Yeah I know refueling has safety issues but this is F1 and there are inherint risks in this sport so the teams have to deal with it and develope better systems. In this way we could see different chassis treat the different tyres better or worse depending on fuel level for the run, aggressivness of the strategy, driver having to push for the stint and pit more or driver carry more fuel and pit less. in other words teams/drivers/engineers are going to have to work smarter to choose the optimal strategy.
And don't bring the argumnet about using the 2 different compounds during the race as I think its brilliant that both compounds need to be used during the race it spices things up more.
As for the guys that want flat out racing on durable tyres....where were you guys when Bridgestone were around....they had that scenario and yet we had processional racing.
I think what I suggested above is great as it does allow drivers to go flat out for a stint....they don't carry as much fuel so don't carry that weight penalty. Also guys can play the long game depending on the set up. In the end of the race when the strategies start to converge or racers are on similar fuel level guys will still have to push to overtake/defend for the win.
On the whole I think that the racing will be alot more exciting.
In the words Mark Webber I think it was....There, thats my rant over
To the Mods and everyone else sorry for it being so long just had to get my point across.

[hollus]

With Pirelli already complaining about it's costs, I guess any ideas that can cut overall costs while minimising un-due effects on racing, should be considered. There's no way a road tyre would work, but with some careful planning and changes, a spec tyre might work...

Such an all purpose spec tire would of course be slower (less grippy) than what we have now. It could be introduced by increasing downforce at the same time, so lap times would remain as they are and nobody would complain about the "slow" tire. Right now, achieving such increase in downforce is the easiest thing in the world: allow back double diffusers, job done.

[hollus]

How about this:
Right now we have 4 dry compounds, some lasting less than 10 laps, and Pirelli flies loads and loads of them across the world, many to be just scrapped after the race (in a fully wet weekend, all dry tires would go straight to recycling while new).

Why not make 3 compounds for the whole season, soft, medium and hard, with a durability of 30-40 laps each in ideal conditions and reasonably wide operating windows, so one could (but won't, see below) do a good race using only two of them for one stint each without needing to go into conservation mode. Make everyone qualify in the medium tire, of which they get 1 set only for the whole quali. Put or save as many laps on it as you need/want. This would make the pecking order a bit different in quali and race, which the rules try to achieve anyways with the starting tire now.
Then, for the race, each driver gets 1 set only of each kind, and is demanded to use all 3 during the race. Voila! 2 pit stops per team, tire strategy deciding the race (Pireblicity) and cars on widely different strategies as one of the three compounds (whichever works worse any given day) is likely to get only 3-5 laps, even 1, which teams would place at different points of the race. Midfield teams could gamble on using the worse compound at the beginning hoping for a safety car, other could use it at the end when the car is lighter. There would still be a point to being nice to your tires as then you can spend more laps on the optimum compound for that track.
Each team would have a spare set of each type for punctures, etc, but if you use it (same compound that failed), you still need to use the 3 starting sets, so it does cost you an extra pit stop, and prove the damage in any case.
Nobody would complain of Pirelli bringing a tire that doesn't work because everyone would know that the exact same tire which was slow today is the fast tire in a different track.

This would result on 4.5 sets of tires being used per driver per race, and the few unused could be reused on testing days. It could be reduced to 3.5 sets per driver by making quali in the same sets as the race; and with more durable tires, less of them would be needed for testing. Also, Pirelli would know the 1st day of the season exactly how many tires of each type would be needed and when, for the full season. Maybe the costs would be cut in half this way?