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Tyres are the only contact between the car and the road, they transmit engine, braking and cornering forces to the track.
More performance can be found or lost in this single area than just about anywhere else.
Spend millions and find a couple of kilos extra downforce - translates to fractions of a second on the track? Or, the tyre company brews up a clever compound and finds a straight 1/2sec.
It is a big, big influencer. These days, tyre development and the way the chassis uses them is so finely poised that an unforseen event (like cooler than projected weather) screws the choice - wrong compound, wrong construction - they don't get to work at the proper temperature and it all goes downhill very fast from there.........
In this age of arrogant self belief that we are masters of technology, tires are still ore art than science. Tires are a complex mix of compounds and materials, and coming up with the correct tire is harder than a chef making a "perfect" meal. And each team keeps it's secrets very secret, how they consmtruct the tires and the compounds used, and methods are very carefully guarded.
So there's no simple or cheap way to improve a tire, it has to done the hard way,trial and error, test and retest, and back to another test batch.
And in the ultra competitive tire wars, improvements come daily, as we all witness. One week Michelin may have a superior dry tire, and the next week Bridgestone. But sadly for Bridgestone, Michelin have done a better job on it's wets, they have consistently out-performed their rivals for a few years now.
Schumi struggled because he can't drive when the Bridgestone develop a curious, incredibly complex phenomena, at the interface between the pressure patch and the microscopic structure of asphalt, that happens when it rains:
technically speaking, we call it "when the tires get wet".
You can call it "Schumacher's hydrophobia syndrome", if you are looking for the strict definition in technical terms.
Ciro Pabón wrote:Schumi struggled because he can't drive when the Bridgestone develop a curious, incredibly complex phenomena, at the interface between the pressure patch and the microscopic structure of asphalt, that happens when it rains:
technically speaking, we call it "when the tires get wet".
You can call it "Schumacher's hydrophobia syndrome", if you are looking for the strict definition in technical terms.
That's not being fair considered that he is the only BS running to made it through to final quali.....
I am really surprised so much work goes into the making of a tire...thanx again!!!