- #Ferrari hot wheels race off cars drivers
- #Ferrari hot wheels race off cars driver
- #Ferrari hot wheels race off cars full
The allocation of slicks is broken down by compound, so each driver gets two hard sets, three medium sets and eight soft sets.Įven before you consider additional wet-weather tyre allocations and the slightly different numbers governing weekends with the sprint format, there are further twists.
#Ferrari hot wheels race off cars full
For a start, each driver can use a maximum of 13 sets of dry-weather tyres for the full three-day weekend. The tyre plot thickens when you consider that resources are limited by the rules. Photo by: Erik Junius How many tyres can a driver use over an F1 weekend? Pirelli tyres, from left to right: soft (red), medium (yellow), hard (white), intermediate (green), wet (blue)
Hard tyres – These provide the least grip, but are supposed to remain in working order the longest.And it should last longer than the softs, but not as long as hards! It’s usually slower than the softs but faster than hards. Medium tyres – This is the compromise compound.Soft tyres – These represent the fastest rubber, but are likely to wear out before the harder compounds do.A harder compound lasts longer, but doesn’t provide the best performance. In theory – which doesn’t always match practice! – a softer tyre is faster but wears out sooner. In Formula 1, the different tyre compounds mean teams have the choice of which way they want to shift this compromise. So, tyres are always a compromise between performance and endurance.
And you don’t want to lose time making too many of those, no matter how fast your car is when the tyres are fresh.
Which in turn means pitstops become necessary sooner rather than later. Because once tyres are worn, handling deteriorates and the danger of a blowout increases. If tyres provide excellent handling but wear out after a lap or two, that’s not going to be much good for winning races. Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images What’s the difference between a soft, medium and hard tyre?Īs we mentioned up top, the essential challenge with tyres is to get as much road-holding performance (grip) as possible – and maintain it for a reasonable length of time. While there have been periods of ‘tyre war’ competition in the past, and no less than nine manufacturers have shod cars in world championship races, Pirelli has taken exclusive care of F1’s rubber needs since 2011. There’s also a full wet compound (marked blue) for racing in serious rain, along with an intermediate (marked green) for a damp, in-between track surface.Īll of these are supplied by Italian manufacturer Pirelli. These ‘slicks’ are marked red, yellow and white respectively.
#Ferrari hot wheels race off cars drivers
On any given weekend, drivers can choose from soft, medium and hard compounds for dry weather conditions. Tyre compounds refer to how hard or soft the rubber is on a particular type of tyre – and they introduce a critical variable to the Formula 1 tyre equation. How do you get the most grip (and thus corner speed) from your rubber – without wearing it out too fast or too soon? What are the tyre compounds used in Formula 1? And although the technology has progressed in line with everything else in Formula 1, the fundamental challenge around tyres has remained virtually unchanged since the very first world championship event in 1950.