F1 experts

[Craig.]

ok heres one for all you F1 buffs.
i recently went back to playing F1 2002 on GameCube and they have a challenge mode on there, on happens to be negate a series of corners on worn tires, problem is, the game seems to make driving on worn tires impossible, like driving on ice if you try to break its impossible to corner, and when you accelerate it sends you into a spin, meaning passing the challenge with a gold rating is almost impossible,
thing being i have always thought worn tires give you better grip and faster speeds as more of the tire is in contact with the road, thus the reason they made the grooved tires a rule.
thanks for any info on this.

[Donnie111]

I dont know what the difference is, but slicks are made to drive without profile. They must be constructed differently. And tires wont work better if they are worn, but theyll work better if they are warmed up.

Donovan

[Craig.]

sorry i forgot to include i am on about slick tires.
howdy donovan, the problem is with slicks they become illegal after they have worn beyond a certain point because they do start to help with speed, but i am not sure about grip

[Travis]

Grip is a function of the area that is in contact with the road.

[ozzy72]

Craig slick tyres are banned in F1, and have been for about 2 years ::)
However the answer to your question is this. Worn tyres will loose grip gradually, and the effects you are getting are accurate. Its to do with the way the tyres are made in layers, and heat affects the rubber of the layer below as the new layer is added, or with injection mould tyres, the speed of cooling from inner to outer layer.
Now a warm tyre will grip better than a cold one (which is why all the cars have tyre warmers). They then do the warm-up lap to scrub off any bits of excess from the mould and to get the tyres up to temperature before the start.
All F1 tyres are X-rayed for imperfections, but as I said, the layer thing has yet to be cracked.... Once someone invents a cold-casting process (which physics says is impossible, but I never believe anything a physicist tells me, not even one of my oldest friends who is a high-energy nuclear physicist), then the problem will disappear and the tyre will be consistent throughout its use.
And I do know a lot about tyres as I spent a while working for Michelin in Watford (their head office in the UK), and spent a lot of time with the motorbike boss, and blagging trips to race tracks as part of the team (okay so I had to do a lot of menial physical labour, but I was in the pits)!!!

Ozzy

Ps. I never got the British GP All the managers would work that weekend

[Craig.]

thanks guys. just checking. when i say slicks i mean in the terms of what they use now. not pure slicks.
although if i had my way formula1 cars would still be as they were when damon hill was in his gold and green williams, mclaren were white and red, and michael schumacher was still considered green:) those were in my opinion the best times for F1. i can still remember the donnington race when it was the european GP for one year, there were more pit stops in those few laps than ever before, good old british weather. and my fav memory still sticks out, nigel mansell and ayrton senna, brazil might have been 89-90 time, coming down the main straight side by side top speed in what seemed to be a monsoon, and with senna being the true rain master he came out of that encounter the winner with an amazing last second braking into the first corner.

[Travis]

Welll, oooohhhh!  Ozzy seems to have it out for me!  Although he does seem to know what he is talking about.  The reason I threw in my post was that I learned about this exact problem in high school physics, albeit on regular cars.  My teacher was explaining why it is a good idea to buy new tires, from a physics point of view.

But I have forgotten why a cold tire doesn't grip like a warm one.  What is the reaction there, ozzy?

[Craig.]

i think it has somthing with the tire being softer, thats also why they have two compounds, in hard and soft, they use the hard tires for fast tracks that require fewer pit stops, and soft tires on tracks that have tighter corners that you need to carry the speed through, in the long run they arnt as fast but on circuits such as hungry and belguim they work out to be faster. I believe, it has been a while since they explained it on tv

[ozzy72]

Absolutely right Craig
Hey Ender, its nothing personal. I just hated physics at school, my teacher was a psycho (he had to leave after beating a girl unconcious using a metal lab stool!).

Ozzy

[Craig.]

hey we had one of those as a music teacher. he eventually lost it and threw himself out the music room window, which happend to be on the second floor. just my luck i had left the school 2 weeks before, and only heard about it on the news,they really should do some better checks on who they hire.

[ozzy72]

Tell me about it. I'm in my 3rd year at the same school The hiring procedures are a joke, the interview was like;
"What special skills do you have?"
"I can jump out of an aeroplane and kill people with a machine gun"
"Do you like children?"
"No!"
"Welcome on board"

[Craig.]

LOL
you forgot marmalading peoples house from your trusty spitfire;) or would that put you in the maybe column:)?

[ozzy72]

I didn't mention the marmalade as I didn't want to get lumbered with domestic science too