I was just wondering, what is the delta T between 'dark'/ no color and the bright colours on the thermal images during F1 broadcasts? The tyre temperature conditions seem to experience huge gradients and this makes me wonder what teams mean when they refer to "temperature windows". I always (a bit blue eyed) imagined tyres to be at a fairly uniform temperature... But then, and this is the question, what is the temperature shown... Does anyone have further nowledge?
I think it has to do with the amount of pressure being placed on the tire which is of course based on downforce, speed, and rotation. The calculation is probably slightly different at most circuits.
As I understand it, when the blankets are on the tires, they warm the tires to about 240*F. And when they go through a 4G turn, the temperature goes up by at least 120*. But I have not looked this up. My sense is that the light grey you see is the color until the temp gets to about 250*. It glows orange at about 375*. The purple is in between.
