OT: Formula 1 tire profile, question Options

[Rand]

Somebody school me on formula 1 tires... why the tall sidewalls? In street tires, the more extreme, the lower the profile. Shorter sidewalls, less flex, more cornering traction... Seems like in anything except F1, the tires are very low profile.

[lapuwali]

The tires have tall sidewalls because the rules dictate maximum and minimum diamter of the tire, and the diameter of the rim. When the rules were laid down in the 1970s, they made sense based on tire technology of the day. Now, they're an anachronism, but kept as they are because: small rims mean small brakes, thus restricting outright speed (theoretically), which was a great idea until carbon-carbon brakes made them work so well even with the small diameters; tall sidewalls mean more flex, which keeps speeds down due to more limited cornering forces, except the tire makers manage to get more stiffness, and now more than 80% of the suspension travel in an F1 car is in the tire sidewalls (direct quote from an F1 designer); the FIA is a bunch of bloody-minded idiots.

There's been talk recently of changing the tire rules, but only to reduce rim diameter even more, or do some other stupid thing to try to make the cars slower. The rules basically aren't there to allow fully optimized cars. They're there to throw up big barriers the designers have to overcome.

The rules now restrict virtually everything on the cars, so you don't see innovative ideas anymore, because they don't fit the rules.

Next year, with the one tire manufacturer again, the rules makers can dictate things like tire compounds to control speeds, and will do so. Grooves will apparently disappear soon, and tire changes are back for next year.

As for power, the 3.0 V10s of 2005 were all making roughly 900hp. The 2.4 V8s for '06 and beyond appear to be in the 600hp range, though it's expected that will rise swiftly. For comparison, the 3.0 Cosworth DFV V8 of 1968 made 400hp, and was the most powerful engine in F1 at that time. Within a couple of years, the Cosworths were making so much power people were contemplating 4wd or six-wheeled cars (with four drive wheels in back, Williams built a prototype of this) to try to get acceptable traction out of the tires of the period. More downforce and better tires fixed that, and by the height of the turbo era in 1984, the engines were making as much as 1200hp in qualifying, for a few laps. They've never been that powerful since.