Car

How motorsport teams extract the maximum performance from tyres

by Gemma Hatton

7min read

It doesn’t matter how much horsepower a racecar generates – whether that’s a sportscar, Formula 1 car, or stock car. If this power is not converted into grip by the tyres, the car will not go faster. This is why tyres are key to unlocking the speed and performance required to win races.

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In our last deep-dive on tyres, we explained the fundamentals of how tyres work and why they degrade.

This article will uncover the tactics teams use to minimise this degradation and extend the performance life of their tyres.

What does high performance mean for a tyre?

 
Firstly, let’s define what ‘high performance’ actually means. A high performing tyre is one that converts the maximum amount of torque from the powertrain into forward motion, without sliding across the track. In other words, a tyre with high grip and low degradation.
 
Grip is the coefficient of friction between the surface of the tyre and the surface of the road and represents how much a tyre ‘sticks’ to the road. 


The amount of grip is determined by the size of the contact patch between the tyre and the track, which in turn depends on the compound, temperature and roughness of the track. 

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The trouble with tyres in Formula 1

 
A tyre generates the most grip when it is operating in its optimum working window. This is a range of temperatures where the rubber is soft and flexible, so it can ‘stick’ to the track better. If a tyre is outside this working range, it will lose grip, cause the tyre to slide across the track, and initiate understeer or oversteer.
 
The common problem with rear-wheel-drive single-seaters, such as Formula 1 cars, is that the front tyres are often too cold, while the rear tyres are too hot. Let’s run through a typical scenario.
 
When a car leaves the garage, the front tyres take longer to warm up than the rears because there is no drive going through the front axle and the tyres are cooled by oncoming air. 
 
If the driver pushes too hard through corners while the fronts are still cold, the tyres will slide across the track and tear the surface of the compound. This leads to graining, which reduces the grip on the front axle, causing the car to understeer.
 
However, with all the traction going through the rear axle, the rear tyres reach their working range much faster. After several laps, the front tyres come up to temperature and gain grip, but by this point the rears are already overheating. Consequently, the rear tyres start to lose grip and slide; triggering oversteer.

In single-seaters, rear tyres have a faster warm up and reach a higher working range. Once the tyres have reached their peak, the temperature drops as the tyres wear away throughout the run.

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The trick is to achieve consistent tyre temperatures across both axles to deliver a balanced and predictable car for the driver. 
 
However, this is extremely difficult, particularly when you only have one car set-up that needs to both increase tyre temperatures for qualifying and decrease temperatures during the race.
 

How teams optimise car set-up for tyre performance

 
Camber
 
One of the first tactics engineers use to manage tyre temperature is tuning the camber angles. Camber is essentially how much a tyre tilts. 


Positive camber is when the top of the tyre leans away from the car, negative camber is when the top of the tyre leans towards the car. Racecars are set-up to have negative camber so that when the tyre rolls during cornering, maximum contact is achieved between the tyre and the track.

 Imagine driving round a right-hand corner relatively fast. Despite the car turning right, the lateral g-force pushes your body to the left, and it’s the same with tyres. Therefore, when a tyre with negative camber rolls to the left during a right hand turn, it will effectively stand up straight; maximising the contact patch area. 
 
The more contact between the tyre and the track, the more temperature that is generated within the tyre.

Racecar tyres are set up with negative camber so that when the tyre rolls during a corner, maximum contact is maintained between the tyre and the track

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Tyre pressures

Another factor that greatly affects the temperature of a tyre is the running pressure. As a tyre warms up, the pressure inside increases which effectively balloons the tyre. This results in a small contact patch, less grip and localised overheating on the tyre’s surface.
 
Lower pressures allow the tyre sidewalls to deform, resulting in more contact between the tyre and the track. This not only increases grip but also generates temperature more consistently throughout the tyre, which is why race engineers prefer running low tyre pressures.
 
However, high pressures strengthen the sidewalls and reduce the risk of failures, so tyre manufacturers like Pirelli, prescribe minimum starting pressures before each race. Although race engineers will tune the set-up to minimise the overall running pressures.

High tyre pressures reduce the contact patch area while low pressures increase it

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Aerodynamics
 
Aerodynamic balance is another key to unlocking tyre performance. Teams tune the front and rear wing angles to adjust the level of downforce on each axle, which helps to either increase or decrease tyre temperatures and grip.
 
“In qualifying you will typically adjust the front wing flap to put more aero balance on the front axle,” explains Eric Blandin, deputy technical director at Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 Team. “When they are new, the tyres offer a lot more mechanical grip, which makes the car more stable, especially at the rear, so you can put more load on the front axle.”
 
“For the race it’s a different story,” continues Blandin. “The rears tend to degrade first and slide more, so you typically move the aerodynamic balance rearwards. This increase in downforce at the rear helps the car to be more stable overall.”
 
Rim heating
 
A technique engineers have used for many years to warm tyres is rim heating. This is where the thermal energy from the brakes is transferred to the rim which then radiates through to the tyres. In some cases, increasing the rim temperature by 10 degrees Celsius can increase tyre temperatures by one degree Celsius. 
 
‘Teams will usually only use rim heating for the front tyres, although this is now quite limited with the current regulations,” says Blandin. 
 
“It is very rare that you ever want to heat the rear tyres because you are always trying to cool them. Maybe in extreme cold conditions or when it is raining would you consider rim heating for the rears.”

Rim heating transfers heat from the brakes to warm the tyres

In Formula 1, tyre blankets are used to preheat tyre sets before a session

Tyre blankets
 
Tyre blankets, ovens and tents are used to preheat tyre sets before they are fitted to the car. This helps the tyres get up to their working range faster once out on track. In Formula 1, tyre blankets consist of a flexible heating element which is wrapped around the circumference of a tyre. 
 
Each set is controlled by a thermostat and the regulations stipulate slicks can be heated to 70 degrees Celsius (158 degrees Fahrenheit) for two hours prior to a session, while intermediates are heated to 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit).


How teams maximise tyre performance during a race
​

Driving style

Once the car is out on track, tyre management is down to the driver. The car set-up can no longer be changed, aside from some minor wing angle adjustments during pitstops and a few settings on the steering wheel. 

Consequently, the biggest contributor to tyre performance is driving style as the load the driver puts through each tyre drastically affects its temperature, grip and degradation.

“The driving style of the driver can change the input into the tyres in terms of energies,” explains Hiroshi Imai, director of tyres and brakes performance at McLaren. 

“Tyre energy relates to speed, slip and load. So, by changing the steering input, lifting and coasting or using the brake options, the driver can still influence parameters to try and mitigate the limiting tyre and distribute the stress around all four wheels.”

Tyre models

Teams have developed complex tyre models which try to predict tyre degradation and therefore how long the tyres are likely to last. This model is updated with data from the long runs during practice and is used to determine a range of race strategies. The laptimes the driver needs to drive to for each strategy are then defined ahead of the race.

During the race itself, these tyre models are updated live and help the strategists decide if and when to switch strategy. 

This is communicated to the driver over the radio, i.e. ‘switch to plan B’, and the driver will adapt their tyre management to try and make the tyres last for the number of laps required for that stint.

Tyre models are updated live during the race and help teams understand the degradation rates

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Brake balance

One of the many buttons on a driver’s steering wheel is brake bias. This is the distribution of braking force between the front and rear axle. If a driver is struggling to warm the front tyres, they can shift the brake balance forwards, putting more brake force, and therefore temperature, into the front axle.

“Brake balance is something that drivers can change dynamically depending on how the car feels during a race,” highlights Blandin. 

“If they have too much stress on the front tyres, they can move the brake balance rearwards, to take load out of the front axle. Whereas, if the rears are overheating, they can move the brake balance forwards. It’s something they can play with to help manage tyre performance out on track and extend the life of their tyres.”

As ever in motorsport, performance is a compromise and it’s no difference with tyres. These round circles of rubber have to withstand phenomenal loads which demand rubber with maximum grip. 

Achieving this, however, is a delicate balance between temperature, pressure, compound stiffness and degradation – a balance that engineers across the globe are still trying to master.

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