If you watch Formula 1 on television, the life of a Bridgestone tyre effectively starts at the beginning of a stint and ends when it is hastily replaced at a pit stop. But there is much more to a tyre’s journey than this.
Tyres live in and around the garage, in the tyre area, and during a Grand Prix weekend the team can use 28 sets of dry tyres, eight sets of intermediates and six sets of wets.
Each car has two sets of prime and two sets of options available for Friday practice, each of which is sent back to Bridgestone. The same happens with the single set of each available for Saturday morning, leaving four sets of each compound for qualifying and the race.
Every tyre is wrapped with an electric blanket which pre-heats it as required, with slick tyres normally heated to around 80°C and rain tyres to 60°C before being used, with heating beginning around three hours before a session.
As well as correct storage, clear identification is a necessity to ensure the right tyres are delivered to the right car even in the high-pressure world of qualifying or the race. Tyre warmers are clearly marked with the driver’s name and a colour-coded sign indicating the type and compound.
So what happens to a used Formula 1 tyre after a session?
First of all it is taken to the back of the garage where the opening task is ‘scraping’, where the soft melted rubber on the top of the tyre is scraped away over a small area to leave a patch of relatively-new-looking tyre.
This gives the Bridgestone technicians a clear area to work, beginning with measurements. Each tyre has a small number of little holes in its surface, around 2mm across, which are used to give accurate wear-rate measurements and these are analysed after the session.
The next step is to prepare the magnesium alloy rims to be fitted with a new tyre, so team tyre specialists remove the balancing weights and clean the rims with plenty of soapy water.
After that, it’s off to Bridgestone for the tyres to be removed from the rims. Bridgestone store the tyres and ultimately return them to their headquarters while the rims can be fitted with new tyres and returned to the Panasonic Toyota Racing garage.
And spare a thought for the tyre guys; aside from the hectic pace of removing and delivering tyres to the garage, there is the weight to consider. The rims weigh around 3kg but add a tyre to that and you are looking at a total weight of around 14kg; not massive on its own but with 168 individual tyres to contend with that’s a serious physical effort.
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is a new challenge for every aspect of the car but particularly the tyres. Bridgestone has brought the medium and soft compound Potenza tyre, which will have to adapt to a dusty and potentially sandy track surface.
Many features of Yas Island are still under construction so dust and sand is likely to blow across the circuit, meaning Friday practice will see rapidly evolving conditions and improving lap times.
And don’t forget the high temperatures. Air temperatures are around 35°C so track temperatures will be sky high, potentially creating high levels of degradation.
Reference: Toyota F1 Push Blog
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