Tires Tag

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer PORTLAND, Ore. – Last Sunday’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway certainly had its opinions. Some see it as Scott Dixon dominating the race as he lapped all but the podium en route to his second win of the season. Others look at the oval debut of the Firestone alternate tires as either overhyped or arguably worsening the product at Gateway. On paper, the race saw 10 lead changes but Dixon and Josef Newgarden led a combined total 221 of 260 laps. It’sRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer On a night that became Chase Elliott’s million-dollar runaway, Ryan Blaney ended up being the only other competitor winning a stage in Wednesday’s NASCAR All-Star Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Blaney, who led a race-high 72 of 140 laps, ended up leading the field to the green flag following pole sitter Martin Truex, Jr. dropping to the rear of the field for failing inspection twice before the race. His time at the front didn’t last as Alex Bowman took command right way, but the No. 12Read More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Formula 1 announced today that the sport plans to introduce 18 inch wheels and a new tire specification for 2021. The plan for 18 inch wheels has been brought up several times in recent seasons, Pirelli even produced a demonstration set, as opposed to the current 13 inch wheels F1 has used for over 20 years. Front tires will decrease in width from 305 down to 270 mm. While the rear tires will maintain their current width of 405 mm, they will increase in diameter fromRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor The Monaco Grand Prix was by no means a classic, but now that it has come to light just how close Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull was to failing, the Australian’s win is all the more impressive and is surely one of the most impressive victories in recent history. The highlights below cover all the main points of the race, from Ricciardo’s supreme race management, to the tire woes that helped keep his rivals at bay. If you caught the race, consider this your next week refresherRead More

By FIA Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel set the quickest time of day two of the first pre-season Formula 1 test in Barcelona, outpacing Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas by three tenths of a second. McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne finished third on the timesheet a further three tenths back. The day began in muted fashion as overnight snow and rain meant conditions were tricky early on and many teams avoided significant running before the halfway point of running. One of those was Red Bull Racing, with the Milton Keynes team being restricted to the garageRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Pirelli’s new hypersoft tires, which Lewis Hamilton called, “Pirelli’s best tire since returning to F1,” won’t make their debut until the fourth race of 2018 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The Italian Tire manufacturer has unveiled their compound selection for the first three Grands Prix of 2018 and the softest compound in their range did not make the cut, despite the first race of the season, the Australian Grand Prix taking place on a street circuit. For Australia, Pirelli will bring the soft, super-soft and ultra-soft tires. ForRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Formula One’s bigger, wider cars of 2017 produced the most downforce the sport has ever seen. That, coupled with the wider, more durable Pirelli tires lead to a massive decrease in overtaking which plummeted 47% compared to 2016 according to Pirelli. The excessive turbulent air of the high downforce cars is well known and Ross Brawn is working on a solution with the 2021 regulations, but it along with the rather dull season finale in Abu Dhabi have lead to an increased focus on the circuitsRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Pirelli’s racing manager, Mario Isola has claims that the tires Pirelli will supply Formula One with in 2018, will be different from the 2017 compounds they are currently working on. Much is being made about the vast changes to the cars for 2017 that will see them lap up to five seconds quicker than in 2016, but none more so than about the much wider tires Pirelli will bring to the table. Ferrari, Mercedes, and Red Bull were tasked with modifying 2015 cars to simulate theRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor The FIA has confirmed a number of rule changes for the 2017 season today. With new cars substantially different and faster than the current machines, the sport’s governing body has had to issue rule changes out piecemeal style, but we can glean some important information from today’s announcement. Power Units The power units themselves aren’t changing for the 2017 season, but how they are to be regulated will. Currently teams have been able to change multiple parts of the power units and incur grid penalties forRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Over half a year since confirmation came that Pirelli would continue its role as the sole tire supplier for Formula One, contracts have been completed and plans are coming to fruition. Former Williams and Lotus driver Pastor Maldonado has served as tire tester for the Italian manufacturer as it researched potential compounds and constructions for the bigger, wider tires set to debut in 2017. Pirelli also confirmed that the first three teams to test the 2017 compounds will be the big three of Mercedes, Ferrari andRead More