The unofficial auto thread

[Lisnpuppy]

They do. The tire degradation has been an issue all year. However until all the teams ban together nothing is going to get changed...but its too late for the Nuremberg race. The teams boycotted the Michelin tires one year at Indy..not racing at all citing safety so it has happened.

 

I think they have plenty of data.

[Vindekarr]

The best thing about the '80s cars sound was, they didn't sound like a hedge trimmer, they just sounded like a really well tuned super-sports car of the era IE Ferrari F40/RUF Yellowbird. It wasn't some tinny wail, it was a loud growl, and I kinda miss that.

 

Chalk up ANOTHER Pirelli horror story; Nico Rosberg's team apparently discovered their tyres had delaminated-rubbishing Pirelli's claims that it was the driver's fault.

 

I gotta say, I do like what they've done with Silverstone. It's always been one of my favourite tracks in the world(along with Spa, Road America, Mount Panorama, Watkins Glen and of course Suzuka and Monza) They've really got a great there now, we saw a LOT of overtaking, and in a lot of different places on the track. Most tracks have one-two passing points, the new Silverstone layout had what, six? Despite all the tyres exploding, it was a great wheel-to-wheel race and I was thrilled to see Mercedes finally have gotten their head around their tyre wear, on a track that really should have given them more trouble. I don't know about in the states but in Australia our commentary comes from an ex-racer called Martin Brundle. He does a great job of it too, but he was in some great form this race-some absolutely hilarious lines.

 

"I do get that not driving on the kerbs should be counter intuitive since you lose a lot of time, but they're absolutely mullering them, and surely you'd lose more time if your tyres went bang!" and the even better "Well, as you can see, bit of bad wear on Rosberg's front tyres-but hey! they're black, round, and haven't gone BANG! so I think they're pretty good right now"

[JimboUK]

The plot thickens, apparently Perelli wanted to make changes but to force a change they'd have to have admited that the current tyres are dangerous.. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/23122185

[Lisnpuppy]

Ok... so lets get someone killed because you don't want to say something about your tire's safety...sounds logical.

 

I am sorry but they have spin doctors that could still make that sound good. Or they could have made an agreement about no lawsuits if they admit safety concerns or whatever. That is so much bullpoo I am waist deep in it.

[Vindekarr]

MotoGP had a similar issue the year before last. Their tyres weren't exploding, but there were a great deal of complaints about an effect called Chatter. I won't bore you by explaining exactly what Chatter is, but it's a really frustrating little bugbear that sometimes happens to a motorbike in which the tyres start vibrating, causing you, essentially, to lose a little bit of traction. It also seemed to effect the Hondas particularly badly. Bridgestone however, didn't embarrass themselves by running around claiming it was the customer's fault-they immediately started testing different sorts of tyres, and two years on Chatter has been all but eradicated, and made virtually equal for everyone.

 

If we're only going to have one tyre supplier, they need to do a good job. I like the idea of having multiple tyre stops, but there are surely better ways to make a tyre wear quickly, which don't risk an explosive blowout at 200 MPH. In Australia we have a national series called V8SC which runs a control tyre-right now we're at race 18(?) of the season for them, and we haven't had a single blowout-unless you include a couple of tyres that got literally torn off their respectives rims-and I don't 'cause the cars were usually worse off. If it's upside-down in a gravel trap with steam coming out of it, or sticking out of a tyre barrier, then a puncture IS excusable.

 

And that's really pretty impressive. Compared to F1, V8SC is a total madhouse. Each cars has a regulation designed chassis, a 5+ litre V-8 engine (500-800 horsepower) and a NASCAR style full-chassis intergrated rollcage. The result is a two-ton behemoth that resembles the hybrid of a BTCC and a NASCAR, They're extremely powerful relative to grip, and the drivers treat them like rentals, bashing them over kerbs hard enough to catch air and into eachother hard enough to lose bits. Dented bodywork and tape repair pit-stops are the norm, which I guess makes the fact we've not had a fatal crash since... well I don't actually remember one within my lifetime, and the fact we've only seen a few "unforced" blowups this year, all the more impressive. IF a two-ton dinosaur of a muscle car can do a 1000 kilometre race without a blowout or blowup, then a Formula One car worth atleast 90 times as much, should be able to atleast do the same, and probably a lot better.

Edited July 1, 2013 by Vindekarr

[JimboUK]

Ok... so lets get someone killed because you don't want to say something about your tire's safety...sounds logical.

 

I am sorry but they have spin doctors that could still make that sound good. Or they could have made an agreement about no lawsuits if they admit safety concerns or whatever. That is so much bullpoo I am waist deep in it.

 

Indeed, they were worried about the bad PR that would result from admitting that the tyres were dangerous, they were obviously more concerned about that than they were the safety of the drivers. A return to the 2012 spec tyres would make the most sense at the moment, those other tyres haven't been thoroughly tested and no one wants another fiasco like this.

[Vindekarr]

It's official, new tyre compounds for the German GP, equipped with a larger, tougher Belt and a Kevlar internal structure, Should be vastly better at soaking up damage. Up to the press release, Pirelli had been getting amusingly shrill; they went so far as to claim teams had improperly mounted the tyres, put the left tyres on the right hand side(what kind of idiot makes asymmetrical tyres and then doesn't mark them as such?) that Lewis Hamilton was overreacting, and finally that "occasional punctures" are "to be expected"

 

Ahh Pirelli, you shouldn't give up your day jobs, you're the worst actors anyone's ever seen. Threatened with a mass boycott, we'll have new tyres for Nurburgring. Hallelujah.

[Lisnpuppy]

I predict they will not be getting the contract again

[Vindekarr]

I doubt it. Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, and Force India are up in arms over this-and let's not forget that Formula One is essentially ruled over by Bernie first, but the teams association second. Messing with them is like stepping on a Taipan that's having a bad morning, on a monday.

 

Pike's Peak came and went last weekend and saw a Peugeot works team race to commemorate Ari Vatinan and Robby Unser's original record in a Peugeot 405. The new Peugeot 208, with better acceleration than a modern F-1 and over 900 horsepower, demolished the existing course record by over a minute. What I want to see though, is that run set to music. Ari Vatinan's '88 drive was immortalised in a video called Climb Dance-back when videos were big, daggy things that came in a box the size of a book and needed a large, wood-framed device even to operate them(anyone here remember those days? when buying a video meant walking to blockbuster to acquire a device the size of a milk carton?) It'd be amazing to see a new Climb Dance film, with THAT shrieking demon of a car. Seriously Peugeot. Make it happen.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PZ5J3GLSYI

 

OK, if you've never watched the original Climb Dance film, it's sort of an initiation test to being a real gear-head in some cultures-well here it is, in glorious HD. 5 minutes of terrifyingly narrow mountain roads, beautiful views, extraordinary driving, and uhhh... no guardrails! enjoy!

 

*Editer's note: a Taipan is a species of large, extremely venomous but largely harmless snake native to the warmer parts of Australia. Shy and timid but extremely dangerous when cornered or frightened. Packs an incredibly venomous and incredibly lethal bite-and a fast strike. Stepping on one is extremely unwise since they would have ordinarily left you alone.

[JimboUK]

Have these new tyres actually been tested? Pirelli thought the adjustments made to the last ones would fix the problem and look what happened there.