F1 tyres not allowed on highways?

[sterling^moss]

was going thru some pics i took at sauber's exhibition at KLCC last time. then i noticed some words on the tyre wall which sez it's not for highway use. i'm kinda puzzled why it's not suitable on highway use. it's construction? material? anyone care to enlighten me?

 

[acbc]

No thread on F1 tires.

 

[facelift]

No thread on F1 tires.

Good for drifting also :p

 

[sterling^moss]

No thread on F1 tires.

no thread? wat if it's dry on the highway? the wings of the car can definitely generate enough grip even at 110km/h rite? that's why they can negotiate corners at >100km/h in fact, i reckon the grip generated by F1 tyres on F1 cars will be far more than say Pierelli P Rosso on Enzo

 

[acbc]

Don't be silly. Normal cars have higher centre of gravity and the tar used on normal roads are of different compound.

 

[SataniC]

no thread is one thing....the tyre wear rate is 50X than normal roads....plus a puddle of water or a loose sand on the road will send the car flying....serious...one time i tried driving around with a full slick tyres on my car...no control....car wont even stop unless brake is applied slowly...heck even semi slick also stated For Competition Only...mine stated on all 4 tyres....

 

[sterling^moss]

hmm...think i've learnt a lesson today. even though it's the opposite of wat i've studied. hehe..coz all the while i was told that more surface of contact = more grip. that's y FIA started to groove tyre to reduce cornering speed coz less surface of contact than full slicks.

as for the water & sand. yes they do appear on the race tracks, remember trulil's qualyfying lap at monaco after ralf's shunt? the marshals poured sands on the track to clean the oil spills. & the track at the swimming pool area was so tight, but trulli still took the normal racing line albeit at a slightly lower speed (around 70km/h). as for the water. we saw what happened at spa a fortnight ago didn't we? but still, michelin's dry tyres can still cope with a bit of drizzle.

as for the compound. for a fresh track like istanbul, there were literally oil on the surface, coz the track was really green, so the teams sent out the 3rd car out on fridays, yet their times were still respectable.

that brings to another question. wat kinda tyres do they use when they're on the roadshow?? ie. renault @ turkey, sauber @ malaysia, bmw williams @ sydney bridge, some teams @ london downtown last year etc. if they use their normal competition tyres, how come they can still cope with the surface? dun 4get that the cars were running quite aggresively at the mini circuit @ london.

edit : nearly 4got abt the center of gravity. yes i'm not so silly to 4get abt that. but how much steering input would u need on a highway? we're talking abt travelling straight at a constant speed here.

 

[SataniC]

well...from my opinion...before every F1 race...SIC will close the track for track repairs...to make sure the track is smooth,oil from last races were cleaned off and sand are where it should be....normal road?summore in malaysia?kekekekekeke....oils from lori hantu dripping here and there...sandtrap in the middle of a corner (from last car accident) are found everywhere...not to mention that normal car wont have a pitcrew to change their tyres when rain starts to drop....ehehehhe so better to be safe than sorry...Illegal them loh.....

 

[nakata86]

arent tyres like advan neova ado7 and falken azenis st 115 semi slicks? why are they road use friendly then?

 

[prodigy]

nakata86,

Its the tyre compounds that matters most. No matter what, AD07 and ST115 are still road tyres whereby you will have a good 30,000km before the tyre needs a change. F1 tyres is a totally different tyre altogether. The compounds, the tyre structure and grooves are simply not made for highway use and also it will never last more than 500KM per tyre. That is also if you drive a F1 car slowly. Imagine these guys are doing an average of 180kmh per race and the tires look like its been raped when the race finishes after 300+km.

We might also been forgetting that F1 tires are only grippy when reached certain temperatures. Below that, its as good as driving in the wets. To reach that temperature, you need to drive pretty fast and corner pretty hard. Thats why you see the drivers doing so much zig zagging before every race starts and thats to bring up the temperature. Even that, the temperatures are not high enuff for the tyres to be working optimal. Maybe after a lap or so. So what i'm trying to say is, our highway road compound isn't like Sepang track or any other track. Normal roads could be a lot more abbrasive as compared to a smoother track surface. Secondly, you don't expect the F1 cars to be doing 180kmh on the highway just to bring up the temperature to have good grip.

 

[SpeedWanker]

i doubt there'd be much of a problem using old competition tires for demo/roadshow as optimum grip is not needed..
i feel one of the reasons the statement 'not for highway use' is there because those tires are not ment for various weather and surface conditions, unlike at the race track where u can change tires at almost any time u need a specific tire and also surface conditions which are rather controlled/fixed..

 

[nakata86]

wow prodigy, thanks. u helped to clear my doubt abt tyres. hehes.

 

[cyclonite]

You are correct. w/o thread it has more grip on dry. but what if it suddenly rains while you're driving? you gila ka?

 

[prodigy]

i doubt there'd be much of a problem using old competition tires for demo/roadshow as optimum grip is not needed..
i feel one of the reasons the statement 'not for highway use' is there because those tires are not ment for various weather and surface conditions, unlike at the race track where u can change tires at almost any time u need a specific tire and also surface conditions which are rather controlled/fixed..

I fully agree with most of your points over here. Simple, short and precise BUT there's one lil mistake and that is about changing tyre at almost any time and specific tyre.

New F1 rules doesn't permit tyre changing during race course. Also, generally the tyres are divided into 2 types, the hard compound and the soft compound. Once you've chosen the hard compound, the whole weekend you're just gonna use the harder one and you cannot change to soft compound say if after qualifying you felt the softer compound is better. In fact this rule have been in practice even before this years tyre rule change.

 

[sterling^moss]

perhaps the term "highway" needs to be defined there. by any means, an F1 car is not road legal so the possibility of one travelling on the highway is ruled out. besides, i dun think f1 tyres can be fitted on road cars. and for highway, little steering input is needed as the road is straight and the car can be travelling at V-max or respective speed limits on a dry patch of tarmac.

since it's not road legal, y on earth did bridgestone slap the phrase on the tyre wall? really beat the hell out of me.

as for the roadshows, since old competition tyres can be used, then i reckon it won't be a problem for the car to travel in a straight line. as far as i know, once the car surpasses 100km/h, aerodynamics takes over and the car will be planted to the ground. and at this time, the acceleration is better than those of 0-100km/h

just some of my humble opinions, gladly to accept other interesting views. perhaps someone should email bridgestone and ask abt this issue

 

[Dino@Casper]

If you watch F1, and you pay attention to what the commentator has to say.. You will notice that they always comment about the trye pressure of the F1 car, and how it drops drastically as heat is lost.. therefore this tryes are design for a certain tempreture range.. which means to maintain that tempreture you would need to be driving at certain speed.. and it would be ridiculous to be travelling at that kind of speed on the highway.. not 2 mention a car to be able 2 travel at that speed would also be a killer point..

 

[SataniC]

hmmm...aerodynamic only plays an important role in cornering....and it was meant to work tandemly with a properly heated tyres....like wat prodigy had mentioned earlier...if the tyres are cold...its as good as a fish....they cannot operate under their minimum temperature...cos these kind of rubbers are meant to melt slowly so that maximum grip can be achieve...thats y u see F1 uses the whole tyre for 400km race....as for why bridgestone slaps a 'Not For Highway' caution...its just for liability issue...at least they stated that it was not meant for highway...incase someone were to use it and crash...they wont be held responsible for that baboon....hehehehe

 

[sterling^moss]

i fully agree with satanic there, liability issues hahaha, these days, u can pretty much sue pple for everything. as for the aerodynamics, the wings of the F1 cars are based on Bernoulli's principle albeit in the opposite way. therefore, it's safe to say that aerodynamics on the F1 car work all the time if the car can sustain its speed at above 100km/h, in fact, more efficiently when the car is moving forward. one clear example would be planes running in forward direction b4 taking off to generate lifts.

as for the tyre pressures, yes it drops when the tyres are cold. but then u can always compensate it with higher pressures if the car is running at low speed ie.monaco so that the tyres will not be under-inflated. as far as i know, a typical dry weather tyre needs abt 90 celcius to be in optimum operating range.

 

[satria_95]

Aiya, F1 car can even drive on highways la. Didn't y'all see the movie "Driven"? Those nut wits drove the F1 car on the road ma. Can chase here and there some more. So basically, can use on the high way la. hehehehehe

 

[gary]

all tyre manufacturers have a standard when it comes to info thats printed on the side of their tyres. in this case, they're probably just doing the usual SOP(standard operating procedure) when making the F1 tyres as they usually do for all the rest of their tyres.

another interesting thing to note is that, all f1 tyres, old, used, or new are tracked by the tyre manufacturer. no 3rd party are allowed to buy them, even when used. This is to protect the technology thats gone into their tyres.

another interesting thing to note is, f1 cars do not have tyres inflated by nitrogen. Just plain old air thats pumped thru a special dryer.