Welcome to the discussion post for the 2023 British Grand Prix practice sessions.
Last weekend the race thread was created by one of our users and that went down really well, so I see no reason to not do that from now on.
Given the amount of comments during practice, we may as well keep them all together for now.
Please, if you don’t see a post for Qualifying and the Race, feel free to make it. I’ll keep an eye out and pin them if they’re made. We’re still working on bots!
So I get that more durable tires are bad for performance, but why are they getting worse long before tirewear should cause that?
I’m not sure of the context of the question, but on a green track like Silverstone currently is, the lack of grip can cause the wheels to slip which generates surface temperature which can cause the tyre to overheat and thus be at a suboptimal temperature and pressure, meaning reduced grip.
Context is that drivers are reporting that the track doesn’t seem to be rubbering in like they’re expecting with the changes that supposed to have happend to the tires during fp1 now. Maybe it’s just a matter of not being rubbered in enough, I guess?
What changes are these? I wasn’t aware there was a change to the tyre compound?
See https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.pirelli-set-to-introduce-new-slick-tyre-spec-at-silverstone.UxGxS3zoIJvaEdVCjEOs3.html
They introduced a new compound for slicks that was originally planned for next year. The cornering speeds this year are faster than their projections so they brought it forward.
I completely missed that, thanks for sharing.
Only heard it from the commenters and as I’m only having it on in the background while I’m working, I could be very wrong.
But I understood that they’re making the tires more rigid so that they’re more durable because they expect Silverstone to put a lot of stress on the tires. I first thought it was specifically for the tire test, but I seemed to have understood that this was why drivers were complaining about grip.
Why is it green? Has there not been enough racing prior to this f1 race to bring it in? Or is it the weather that’s washing it clean?
They’re the general reasons for a green track, so probably a combination of the two.