Bridgestone will bring a different tyre allocation to the Chinese and Monaco Grands Prix than those used in 2009.
F1’s official tyre supplier has announced which compounds will be brought to rounds four to seven of the 2010 season.
At Shanghai the teams will use tyres one stage harder than were provided in 2009. Last year’s race was run in wet conditions and dry tyres weren’t used.
At the Monaco Grand Prix Bridgestone will bring tyres that are two stages apart for the first time. Last year it brought its softest compounds available to the Monte-Carlo street circuit, but this year the drivers will have to use the harder medium compound.
Here are the full details of the tyre allocations announced so far for 2010:
| Circuit | 2010 tyres | 2009 tyres |
| Bahrain | Medium / Super Soft | Medium / Super Soft |
| Albert Park | Hard / Soft | Medium / Super Soft |
| Sepang | Hard / Soft | Hard / Soft |
| Shanghai | Hard / Soft | Medium / Super soft |
| Barcelona | Hard / Soft | Hard / Soft |
| Monte-Carlo | Medium / Super Soft | Soft / Super soft |
| Istanbul | Hard / Soft | Hard / Soft |
It’s possible that the recent attention focused on improving the quality of racing in F1 has played a role in these decisions.
Monaco’s low grip surface has led drivers to use the softest possible compound when available. The medium tyre will be very tricky to deploy and we could see drivers waiting until very late in the race, when the track has rubbered-in as much as possible, before switching. But that could leave them vulnerable if the safety car is deployed.
Bridgestone is also supplying a harder range of tyres for this year’s Australian Grand Prix.
Read more: Harder tyres for the Australian Grand Prix
Simon
24th March 2010, 9:00
Hopefully this will help spice up the racing, however we need to go back to not caring about tyres and making them the be all end all in a race.
sato113
24th March 2010, 13:02
surely if they wanted to spice up the racing, they’d bring soft and super softs to every race!!!
it’d induce more pitstops and more tyre degradation.
Mike
24th March 2010, 13:42
It’s a double edged sword, Sato you have a point, but what if we see them nurse the tyres to avoid extra pit stops?
Then again making them last al race means we won’t see cars scraping desperately at the end of a race (like in Abu Dhabi last year) which proved exciting.
Though to rely on that is to suggest the sport can’t be livened up other ways, which I will add, it can!
And I wish I had another answer about the tyres, but I just don’t.
macahan
24th March 2010, 14:03
But the thing is also if you bring a harder tire it’s easier to make mistakes because you don’t have the grip. Most of the overtaking today happens because the driver in front makes a slight mistake, hit the breaking zone wrong, don’t get the right line through a corner and don’t get the traction away from the corner. The softest tires allow for to much mechanical grip allow very late breaking which makes it harder to overtake and very good cornering control and good traction away from a corner helping minimize mistakes but of course easier to run the rubber of your tires requiring additional pitstops. BUT I HATE the pitstop overtakings I want to see overtaking ON track not by strategy.
sato113
24th March 2010, 15:59
how about bringing the super soft and hard compound to every race? then we’d see massive differences…
Icthyes
24th March 2010, 18:01
But without the mechanical grip from the softer tyres, the cars can’t get close enough to each other through the corners as the balance shifts even more towards reliance on aero.
It’s a total mess. We can’t have tyres that allow cars to follow because it gives them too much grip in the corners and shortens braking zones, but with harder tyres the cars need to have an even greater speed advantage to follow and pass each other!
macahan
24th March 2010, 19:04
@itches but they wouldn’t be able to break as late and we would see more late breaking incidents and less perfect corner takings allowing for more overtaking. I don’t believe either that really more on aero would distance them further sure less chance of overtaking possibly in fast parabolica like turns but you never seen lot of overtaking there anyways.
sato113
24th March 2010, 20:49
@macahan
following closer in corners is more important than braking.
‘less perfect corner takings allowing for more overtaking’- but the downforce is so good on modern f1 cars, i doubt they’d make a mistake these days.
MigueLP
24th March 2010, 23:06
agreed last year in melbourne some of the spice was about the heavy degradation of the super soft
AP
25th March 2010, 2:32
I have to agree..no point making the tyres that good to last near on the entire race, better to have tyres that wear out depending on driving style….that would add the element of nursing tyres or being more aggressive and taking an extra pitstop.
Kills 2 birds with one stone as we see driver skill, and remove the need for forced pit stops…God help us if we ever have more forced pitstops and or forced pit windows.
ajokay
24th March 2010, 9:12
Anyone else find that the more you look at the word ‘soft’ the less it begins to look like a legitimate word?
Adrian
24th March 2010, 9:30
Anyone else find that the more you look at the word ’legitimate’ the less it begins to look like a legitimate word
GeeMac
24th March 2010, 9:36
Agreed. I was astonished that nearly every car on the grid could go nearly a full race distance on the Meduium tyre in Bahrain.
If they want to “improve the show” (another dirty phrase in modern F1 terms) the fact that the tyres are so durable teams can do an entire race distance on a medium or soft tyre needs to be sorted out.
GeeMac
24th March 2010, 9:38
Poor spelling due to the fact that I’m supposed to be working! :)
BBT
24th March 2010, 11:45
[quote]It’s possible that the recent attention focused on improving the quality of racing in F1 has played a role in these decisions.[/quote]
Looking at that it potential mean less exciting racing, unless my brain is wired backwards today.
Less grip and last longer surely two things we don’t want (although to offset that there might be less difference between running on and off line, which is what we want).
:-)
Steve
24th March 2010, 12:21
Harder tyre compounds should be the way forward.
I know everyone’s thinking ‘Softer to force pit stops’ but softer compounds would create more marbles which would make moving offline harder & overtaking therefore harder.
Softer compounds woudl also make braking distances shorter which would again hurt overtaking possibilities.
Harder tyres means less marbles which makes going offline more of an option.
Other series such as Indycar have looked at harder compounds at a few races late last year to improve the racing & it seemed to work so they have stuck with it for this year.
Frank Dernie also put forward an opinion recently that harder tyres would lead to better racing.
Icthyes
24th March 2010, 18:03
They would, but aero still needs to be reduced too for it to work. Notice how the narrower front tyres, which have lessened mechanical grip overall as well as just at the front, have contributed to the drop in overtaking. I think Mark Webber mentioned it in an interview.
HG
24th March 2010, 22:25
Yup JB mentioned if as well. When they get into the turbulent air this year, the narrower front tyres reduce front grip, encounraging understear.
BBT
24th March 2010, 12:36
Agree on those points.
Through the corners cars would be following further behind so that the larger braking distance wouldn’t be a usable benefit. I’ve said previously I don’t think you can compare Indycar and F1. I guess it depend on which facts end up being the most significant come race day. You can easily argue either way.
Another comment….Having read the article on Autosport it’s Bridgestone playing it safe, and why would they? They want to tires to last as long as possible.
macahan
24th March 2010, 19:11
But the overtaking is not done after the corner but rather in the corner after a straight where aero is not “important” during breaking to setup for a pass the driver are no longer behind the lead car but to the side so where the aero grip is important is during the corner and then they are usually side by side not following. In the cases where overtaking is done after a corner is when the lead car screws up the corner and don’t get a good exit and gotten offline while the follower is on racing line or moved over somewhat from racing line and still would be able to get good aero grip through the corner of course not as good grip as today or last year. I thought better mechanical grip would help in overtaking but last year showed it did not when they started racing on slicks again.
BBT
24th March 2010, 20:55
but if you drop so far behind in the corners you’ve not caught up by the end of the next straight (you start to but then loss it in the corners again)
Last year there were load of over takes and closer following.
BBT
24th March 2010, 12:38
whoops, that should of been ‘Why wouldn’t they’ and I missed the ‘s’ off depends….
I’ll get my coat.
DGR-F1
24th March 2010, 17:16
If its now come to the point where the tyres choices, enforced by the FIA and Bridgestone are going to be the deciders in the race, then I have to ask why don’t we go back to the supplier providing the most suitable tyre for the track, and leave the rest to the drivers.
Some drivers will drive fast and punish the tyres and have to stop for more, while others will keep the same set throughout the race, but maybe not be going fast enough to win.
Its the thing called ‘Endurance’ which is still lacking from the mix so far this year. Are the FIA actually using the two tyre rule because Bridgestone still cannot make tyres that are good enough to last a whole race?
Why are we putting up with the continued playing with the ‘Show’ and not being allowed to see real racing!
Icthyes
24th March 2010, 18:12
What tyre systems would work (in my opinion):
– The system you proposed
– Two-compound rule, but only if you make a pit-stop. Non-stoppers can start and finish on same tyres. One gap between compounds, with one compound being the most suited for the circuit.
– Two compounds and start on the same tyres you qualified on (and, I’d propose, Q2 qualifiers start on the same compound, but not exact same set), with only super-softs and hards.
Unfortunately what we have is a halfway-house that seems to bring more of the disadvantages of the various possible systems than their advantages.
macahan
24th March 2010, 19:18
One thing I would like to see is two compound rule BUT no required pit stop. This way someone can opt to try 2 stop on soft tires and be 2-3 sec faster a lap gaping enough to have time to stop twice or even three times. While someone might try a no stopper on hard tires and make the tire last the race distance. If they damage the tires might have to switch tire strategy in the middle of the race and try a 1 stopper and swapp to soft tire to go faster. A car on soft being 2-3 sec a lap faster should be able to overtake a car on harder because has the mechanical grip to outbreak and push the driver on hard to make mistake. As is now tire strategy is decided during qualification and with a 1 required stop only “strategy” left is WHEN to stop and all drivers will more or less run the entire race on same compound as all others except for during the tire stop window. Just look at Bahrain only Sutil ran hard from start had it not been for the smoke incident he could finished very high up I believe.
HG
24th March 2010, 22:36
so really, more tyre options an allow people to do what they want, to encourage differnt stratagies. This combined with reducing areo, such as banning DDD, F ducts, wing size etc???
AP
25th March 2010, 2:50
drop the 2 tyre rule it was stupid idea to begin with and still is.
It shouldn’t be that hard..a team has to choose a compound pre race say after prac1 on friday…this is now the only dry tyre available to them….
May be a disadvantage or you may get a big advantage depending on car and driver..It may also be par for the course as all teams may go the same route..
But for goodness sake make the compounds not so durable that no stop is required unless the driver has the ability to nurse the tyres to the end.
In short this whole mess is down to standardization…single tyre supply drive zero development, if another supplier was to walk in right now under current rules and make a tyre that cornered better and grained less while following a car then it would improve the ‘show’ straight away.
Remember when Michelin cars had one advantage and Bridgestone runners had other strengths…
Atleast it added an extra element to the weekend.
Steve
24th March 2010, 18:15
these are almost all bad decisions!
we need soft tires for each track, which are 2-3 seconds faster than the mediums, but last 10 laps…
and hards which cannot do just more than half the race…
10 laps X 2 seconds faster = a pit stop
i.e. soft soft soft hard (three stops) vs hard soft
vs soft hard soft
etc….
but no,
bridgestone make the safest tires they can, with compounds being within 3-5 tenths of each other… and a hard tire that can easily do 75% of the race…
i.e. quali soft, race 10-20 laps, put on hards… that is all we’re going to see for now
Steven
macahan
24th March 2010, 19:28
Actually I believe in Bahrain the hard could been made to last all race by many teams. The soft lasted a good 20 laps for many before they started to be “as slow” as the hard tires. Sutil ran 33 laps on soft tires. Most drivers pitted between lap 14 and 20 going to hard tires. I think the early swap to hard by Sutil was a attempt to save his race get him out of traffic and give him 2-3 sec per lap faster to the other drivers that was expected to change to hard during same time.
newnhamlea1
24th March 2010, 18:37
they should go back to 2005 tyre regulations, no tyre changes allowed unless nescacery, however refueling is allowed.
Piffles
24th March 2010, 20:51
All this fannying about with tyre compounds is pretty much as useful as rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic as far as I’m concerned.
Chaz
31st March 2010, 13:42
Question – could the racing be improved if teams were allowed to choose their own two compounds available by bridgestone, rather than have two compunds imposed on them by bridgestone…