Comments on: Slick Tyres + Reduced Downforce – Tyre Blankets = Trouble?

By: Tyre Warmers Stay For 2009 » BlogF1

Tyre Warmers Stay For 2009 » BlogF1 — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:46:00 +0000

[...] Many drivers criticised the move when the FIA said it was looking into banning tyre blankets for next year, and when the teams ran slick tyres in tests earlier in the year, they found that the difference between a cold slick and an up-to-temperature slick was a lot, meaning there would be very fast and particularly slow cars on the same track during races. This, the drivers say, could be dangerous. The first lap is very slow, and that’s the danger. There are cars which are up to racing speed and you are coming out of the pits very slowly. You are like a mobile chicane. Pedro De La Rosa. [...]

By: Andy

Andy — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:51:02 +0000

Tyre warmers were definately in before 1994, but I don’t remember them being introduced

By: Arun

Arun — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:08:51 +0000

Would this give way for increased role of ‘team strategy’ in getting a win?

By: Oliver White

Oliver White — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:30:45 +0000

Haha, no problems Arnet. I agree that safety should be the primary concern in a sport so potentially dangerous, but having read Keith's viewpoint, the F1Fanatic does make some valid points (post here). Keith's main argument is that warming the tyres is a key skill for drivers, and I'll add in that it should be one for drivers competing in one of the highest categories of motor sport. But I'll also say that with downforce being reduced it is making it harder and harder for the drivers to get heat into the rubber. That's as far as I understand it anyway. Surely there's a limit to what a driver can achieve? Whether the drivers are there or not in regards to tyre-warming is perhaps a slightly different debate, but other than forcing Bridgestone to alter their compounds, I can see no other benefit from banning them. It just means that instead of all the drivers having tyres that work in higher temperatures, they'll all be on tyres that work in lower temperatures. Coulthard does appear to have become a bit of a grumpy old man recently, speaking up on all manner of things, but when something can perhaps be made safer without impacting the point of the sport too much, then surely that would be the way to go? Aside:

a sausage wrapped in a pan-cake

I think us Brits call sausages wrapped in bacon 'pigs in blankets'. Interesting difference.

By: Clive

Clive — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:03:31 +0000

Well, if DC’s against it, it must be a good thing…

By: Arnet

Arnet — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 06:59:48 +0000

Ooops! Missed that it was Oliver. See in the latest post that you have stuck to your air-guns.

By: Arnet

Arnet — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 06:54:47 +0000

Am I mistaken in observing that you have changed your position on tyre warmers, Keith? You pointed out previously, quite correctly, that other categories of auto racing do not use blankets, and many of them provide more overtaking than F1. Still, I think the primary issue is, and should be safety. The only true reason for slowing cars down is safety, but if the method employed increases risk, then the point is moot. Leave the piggies in the blanket.
(For non-North-American readers, the dish I refer to is a sausage wrapped in a pan-cake.)

By: milos

milos — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 01:35:38 +0000

this would be bad and may end up in a disaster … they just changed rules for Q3 to get rid of the moving chicanes in quali, but FIA seems to be happy to have them in races … I see no logic …