2009 Tyres

FB

Not my cup of cake
Valued Member
I may have missed this but does the move to slicks for 2009 mean that the drivers no longer have to use both compounds Bridgestone bring to the race in '09? It makes sense if the FIA want closer racing that the cars should be fitted with the best tyres to opitimise their speed and, personally, I could never fully understand the reasons behind insisting that both compounds be used. I suppose the risk was that if one compound looked significantly better than the other and Bridgestone had limited supplies the top teams would have "first dibs".

Roll on 2010 when we get rid of pit stops altogether! Although this begs the question, does this take us back to the "control tyre" situation of 2005?
 
The FIA F1 Sporting reg state:

25.4 d) Unless he has used wet or extreme-weather tyres during the race, each driver must use at least one
set of each specification of dry-weather tyres during the race.

So it looks like the same situation as 2008. It will be interesting to see how the tyres will be identified now that they can't put the white stripe in the grooves. The regs also allow the use of tyre warmers, are these banned from 2010 then?
 
Fat Bloke said:
The FIA F1 Sporting reg state:

25.4 d) Unless he has used wet or extreme-weather tyres during the race, each driver must use at least one
set of each specification of dry-weather tyres during the race.

So it looks like the same situation as 2008. It will be interesting to see how the tyres will be identified now that they can't put the white stripe in the grooves.
Either they haven't updated the reg's or there will indeed be 2 different kinds of slicks.
As you say, they will have to come up with another way of making them easily identifiable for viewers.

The regs also allow the use of tyre warmers, are these banned from 2010 then?
Apparently so, along with refuelling.
That will mean another radical redesign of the cars so they can accomodate fuel tanks big enough to last a whole race.
 
Don't be too quick to celebrate the demise of pit-stops since

  • They'll have to stop for tyres as things stand
  • 1992! Exciting stuff!
  • It's not always been dull!

See the Grand Prix of China (2007), Canada (2008), Singapore (2008), Australia (1999), Europe (1999)!
 
It would be far less dull if they went back to the (bad) only days of no pitlane speedlimits, but i suspect that may be slightly to dangerous!
 
Interesting fact....

At the 1993 European Grand Prix at Donington Park, Ayrton Senna set the fastest lap when he drove into the pit lane but aborted the pit stop, returning to the circuit. This was due to the layout where the pit lane entry was before the final hairpin onto the start/finish straight.

Pit lane speed limits were introduced the following season.
 
teabagyokel - although there are some examples where pit-stops have made racing more exciting generally, in my opinon at least, it has been to the detriment of the sport. Last season in particular, apart from on a few specific occasion (e.g. Lewis Hamilton in Germany) drivers made no attempt to try and over take on the track, instead waiting for their target to pit and then banging in a few hot laps before their own pit stop.

My hope is that the banning of tyre warmers in 2010 will discourage the drivers from even changing rubber given the performance differential there will be on cold tyres for, probably, 5 laps.
 
When there was a similar rule in ChampCar, the softer compound were distinguished by a red-painted sidewall. Bridgestone were the suppliers then, too.
 
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