Renault join Ferrari’s call for softer tyres
19th August 2008, 23:29 by Keith Collantine 22 Comments »
Renault and Ferrari want softer Bridgestone tyres
At the beginning of the month Ferrari claimed Bridgestone’s choice of harder tyres was disadvantaging them.
Now Bridgestone has revealed its tyre choices for the final four races of the season and again it is bringing a harder set of tyres to one round – Interlagos, for the Brazilian Grand Prix.
And now Renault as well as Ferrari are questioning Bridgestone’s choice of tyres.
Pat Symonds said:
The selection for Hockenheim was definitely too hard. Also for Spa and Monza a step further on the soft side would be sufficient.
Spa-Francorchamps and Monza are the other two circuits (besides Interlagos) where Bridgestone is bringing harder tyres than it did last year.
McLaren are expected to stand to gain the most from the harder tyres – particularly at Interlagos, where it had problems with the super-soft tyres last year.
So why are Bridgestone bringing harder tyres? Perhaps the seven teams besides McLaren, Ferrari and Renault all want harder compounds. Bridgestone’s Hirohide Hamashima seemed to allude to this:
[Brazil] can be very hot, as we saw last year, and our data from the thrilling final race of last season showed us that this change would be beneficial for the teams.
But perhaps part of Bridgestone’s thinkin is a desire to play it safe. Rival tyre constructor Goodyear had a major embarrassment at the Indianapolis NASCAR race this year when the race was ruined by tyre failures. Tyres that are a bit too soft are more of a problem than tyres are a bit too hard.
Why do you think Bridgestone is bringing harder tyres – and what effect do you think it will have on the championship?
Dan M said on 19th August 2008, 23:56
The title says they want softer tires but the caption says “Renault and Ferrari want harder Bridgestone tyres”.
amy said on 19th August 2008, 23:59
Personally I think they should have the softer tyres on offer like Ferrari and Renault are stating, it is then always interesting to see who can last on the softs and who overcooks them (ie hamilton). The hard tyres are a bit pointless if all it means are that a few teams are not going to be able to drive properly and do poorly as a result
Keith Collantine said on 20th August 2008, 0:02
Whoops – thanks Dan
donwatters said on 20th August 2008, 0:43
I agree with Amy. Why not let the teams decide which compound works best for them. In fact, why not have a number of compounds on offer? It would almost be like having another supplier in the mix.
donwatters said on 20th August 2008, 0:45
OK, so maybe Bridgestone wouldn’t be happy having to supply so many options…but that goes with the territory when you’re a single supplier.
mute said on 20th August 2008, 0:56
correct me if i’m wrong, but there are only four types of (dry wether) tyres that bridgestone construct – super soft, soft, medium and hard.
So if Mclaren are more competitive or harder compounds and Ferrari on the softer type why not just let the teams choose which ones they want rather then bringing a set for everyone.
Becken said on 20th August 2008, 1:18
The fact is, we can’t change the ruler tyres this year anymore.
Anyway, hats off to Hirohide and Bridgestone by trying to preserve the interest of the all teams and not only Ferrari´s ones.
Been Bridgestone a Ferrari partner for a long years, even with the red cars illustrating his Ads, I admit that Hamashima and the supplier surprised me in any of their decisions this year, trying to bring much more equilibrium between safety and competitiveness to entire grid.
Off topic: for me one the great mysteries of Formula 1 are the issue about driving style and set up skills. Any time that a guy from Autosport try to discover something on this field, answering the drivers or the engineers, all of them avoid the subject. The most valuable insight in the matter was made by Hamashima last week…
mmmm.. I think I will suggest a post…
Melanie said on 20th August 2008, 1:57
Teams should able to decide for themselves what tyres they want to use for a race. Hopefully with the slicks of next year, the tyres will have higher operating windows.
mani said on 20th August 2008, 3:23
There was a recent discussion on tires, “Final tyre allocations good for McLaren?” on 9th Aug 2008!
mani said on 20th August 2008, 3:25
Just thought of mentioning it as the post lead to discussions on tires choices for individual teams! Keith has given a hyperlink for this in this post
Paige said on 20th August 2008, 4:05
amy,
you must not have been watching the Hungarian Grand Prix when Hamilton lasted nearly half of the race on a set of the super-softs and was catching Alonso from seconds behind him at the end. Hamilton can manage tires. With the harder compound tires, you have to push them harder to build up heat to get grip.
Really, though, there isn’t a whole lot that the driver can do to save the softer compound tires. With the speeds at which Formula One cars are traveling and the grip that they have, you are going to get a lot of wear anyways as the tires are pushed into the track with a ton of force, which grinds them away. One of the Bridgestone engineers I have read in an earlier article that Kevin posted stated that the McLaren is currently generating more grip than the Ferrari, which certainly gives it more speed, but it also abuses the tires more (whereas the Ferrari is easier on tires). Furthermore, another Bridgestone engineer stated that the McLaren has an oversteering tendency, which will grind away the rear tires. Recall Silverstone this year, when Heikki had significant problems with rear tire wear and was having to work very hard to control the car; two times, it didn’t work. Lewis was making a number of steering corrections inside the car at Hungaroring for the same reason.
Basically all that the driver can do to save tires is minimize sliding, and Hamilton is a pretty smooth driver in transitions.
Snoopy said on 20th August 2008, 5:31
I think its complete wrong that teams do not have choice what kind of tyres they use. Bridgestone makes tryes but they not own F1 teams. Tyres are just one part of cars.
I do not understand howcome FIA let some outsiders makes rules what kind of tyres teams HAVE TO use in races.
Its really WRONG…grrrr…ugh i have sopken, well spoken even.
DG said on 20th August 2008, 8:23
Thinking of this from another angle – since there is only one tyre supplier and the teams have to go with whatever compounds the supplier brings along to any particular race, shouldn’t it be possible for the supplier to design tyres specifically for each circuit? It then makes more sense having just one supplier – and they have to do a certain amount of development to create the correct tyres for each race, instead of just a vague set of extra hard, hard, soft and super soft compounds which don’t necessarily suit any of the circuits.
That way the teams would have to design and set up the cars with the tyres in mind, though they would know what they were getting to begin with. But what would be used to decide the ideal compound for each circuit?
Perhaps this is too obvious a solution, as it would also mean FIA/FOM ensuring that the tyre supplier was talking to all the teams!
Keith Collantine said on 20th August 2008, 8:55
DG – I think it would be possible for Bridgestone to design tyres for each circuit but they’d hate the expense.
Part of me wonders if Ferrari hasn’t just made a mistake in reading the lie of the land. A control tyre is always going to be slightly harder than it needs to be because the tyre supplier doesn’t want loads of tyre failures. Perhaps McLaren have made the right decision in making their car harder on its tyres? In 2005, when tyres had to last a full race distance, McLaren did an equally good job of building a car that was very kind on its tyres.
Kester said on 20th August 2008, 9:21
The way I see it is Renault don’t tell Red Bull they will be using their Clio engines at the next race, so why should Bridgestone tell the teams they will be using such and such a tyre?
I know it’s an extreme example, but the point holds true.