In the round-up: Formula 1 teams are seeing ever higher forces exerted upon their tyres ahead of another off-season of development.
In brief
F1’s official tyre supplier Pirelli introduced revised tyres during the 2023 season as the forces generated by cars continues to rise. It also had to impose extra limits on tyres use at the Qatar Grand Prix due to concerns over how the kerbs affected the constructions.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said he is confident Pirelli can handle the rising forces generated as teams find more downforce from their cars and minimum weight levels rise. But he stressed the forces they are seeing are getting ever higher as F1 heads into the third year of its current technical regulations.
“At some events, we definitely this year have had some extreme parameters in terms of starting conditions for the tyres, when it comes to pressure in particular,” said Stella. “Which [asks], like, how far more can we go just to protect tyres?
“Giving away a bit of technical information for everyone to understand the context, in Vegas the starting pressures were very, very high. I think some runners might have seen 30psi while running.
“But ultimately, this is exactly where Pirelli have the competence, their expertise, and if they think that tyre construction, tyre development needs to match car development, ultimately they will act. And we know that when it’s on safety, then tyres can be upgraded just basically from one race to the other.”
He said F1 is “in good hands” with Pirelli but stressed the tyres experience a “heavy duty cycle”.
“If you think about the starting parameters and when you look at the numbers of these Formula 1 cars, which are just huge in terms of load on the tyres, it’s totally unprecedented.”
Van der Garde retires
Giedo van der Garde, who raced in Formula 1 for Caterham in 2013 and has since competed in sports cars, has announced his retirement in a social media post.
“It all started with passion,” he said. “Just me and my dad. Just pure racing. Then we took on the world and we conquered it.
“Racing became my life. I met new rivals and made new friends. Won some races, lost a few, and then made my dream come true. I was knocked down but got back up because the passion was still there. Again, I made new friends once I’m races and even conquered the world again.
“But by now it was a new world, a world in which I’m a dad myself, a world which revolves around my wonderful family and the…
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