Slicks, KERS and weight distribution

[wedge]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72024

Next year's McLaren could be one of the interesting cars to follow since they're developing the car to Hamilton's driving style, and Kovy fans will have be keeping their fingers cross for him adapting to the car.

[gloomyDAY]

2009's rule changes are going to favor Hamilton. Those sticky tires up at the front are going to make the car have an over-steer bias, which suits Hamilton's style. I'm still anxious to see how the tests run later this month and if the teams will get all the glitches out in time.

[Allyc85]

You should work in F1 if you know exactly how things are going to be next year....

[Daniel]

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[ioan]

You should work in F1 if you know exactly how things are going to be next year....

He was right, the slicks + the bigger front wing and smaller rear wing = oversteering car.

Bridgestone proposed to make narrower front tires to counter this but the teams vetoed it because of the aerodynamic implications.

[Kneeslider]

Why would a narrower front tyre be less desirable aerodynamically than a fatter one?

I would have thought that the teams were interested in producing a car which had 'balanced' handling, where understeer and oversteer are both just as accessable to the driver should he require it.

[ioan]

Why would a narrower front tyre be less desirable aerodynamically than a fatter one?

I would have thought that the teams were interested in producing a car which had 'balanced' handling, where understeer and oversteer are both just as accessable to the driver should he require it.

I'm not an F1 aerodynamics specialist, but I suppose this change would have meant lots of work to dial the narrower tires into the overall aero scheme of the cars, and they didn't want to go that way.

Here's the info I read about it:


The tendency for the front slick tyres to provide more grip than the rears came after teams vetoed a request from Bridgestone to reduce the size of the front tyres - because of the impact that would have on car aerodynamics and suspension settings.

Bridgestone's director of motorsport tyre development Hirohide Hamashima said: "We proposed to reduce the front tyre size, but the teams refused.

"We therefore changed the rear tyre construction to increase grip, but we cannot find a compromise at the moment. If teams design the car similar to this year then they will struggle with oversteer tendency, so teams which have an understeer tendency to their car will be good in the beginning.

"But the teams will struggle to design the car because with KERS the rear section will be heavier."

Full article here: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72024
Worth reading for those interested by the technical side of F1.

[wedge]

2009's rule changes are going to favor Hamilton. Those sticky tires up at the front are going to make the car have an over-steer bias, which suits Hamilton's style. I'm still anxious to see how the tests run later this month and if the teams will get all the glitches out in time.

Depends how the car oversteers.

Drivers like Senna, Schumacher and Hamilton like oversteer, but progressive enough to manipulate the car and still be super quick.

If its snap-oversteer then that's harder to live with, as Senna testified in 1994 when he drove the Williams that year.

Hamilton struggled at the beginning of the year with the car being unstable and under braking and the fronts snatching quickly. But apart from Brazil, McLaren/Hamilton made the car work better by being able to brake deep into corners and still snatch the brakes and not lose time.


Why would a narrower front tyre be less desirable aerodynamically than a fatter one?

Narrower tyre will increase tendency to oversteer at turn-in - same thing on road cars. Because of the larger front wing, no-one really knows how this will affect the aero and overall balance


I would have thought that the teams were interested in producing a car which had 'balanced' handling, where understeer and oversteer are both just as accessable to the driver should he require it.

That has always been the goal but what comes out on paper, computers and wind tunnels doesn't always work in real life. A good example being a wind tunnel being wrongly calibrated and that's what? 6 months work down the drain?

[ioan]

Narrower tyre will increase tendency to oversteer at turn-in - same thing on road cars.

I'm not sure that I'm following you there. For me narrower tires = less grip = less oversteer (all the other things being equal).

[Somebody]

I'm not sure that I'm following you there. For me narrower tires = less grip = less oversteer (all the other things being equal).

Not all other things ARE equal though, and there's the rub.

But in any case, they didn't say narrower. They said smaller. Reducing the tyre circumferences would have an effect as well - including a complete redesign of the suspension geometry!

[ioan]

Not all other things ARE equal though, and there's the rub.

But than you can't make any comparisons, isn't it?


But in any case, they didn't say narrower. They said smaller. Reducing the tyre circumferences would have an effect as well - including a complete redesign of the suspension geometry!

I don't know if reducing the diameter of the tire would reduce grip level as much as narrowing the tire. Plus as you say it will bring along the need to completely redesign the suspensions (but I think they will do this anyway as they try to achieve a certain weight distribution.

[Knock-on]

Well, first days testing and the only real comparison is from McLaren.

Apparently PdlR ran with KERS and was 8/10's up on Gary who didn't.

Very early days but interesting anyway.