Racing 101 (Tires, Tracks, etc)

Hi all,

I'm a new F1/racing fan, so please bear with me as I am still learning.

I have heard a lot of terms about the dry/wet tires that the cars using during racing. Can someone please explain the following terms, and group them together, where they describe the same type of tires?

- soft
- hard
- intermediate
- slick
- wet
- dry
- any other term that I've missed...

My next questions are about the "dirty" side of the grid:
* What is the "dirty side" of the grid, and why is it called that?
* Is it the line of cars behind the guy in Position #2?
* If so, is the guy in #2 also in a "dirty" position?
* Is it called "dirty" because they will have a tough time getting ahead of others?


Thanks!
~shahedc
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Here goes:

There are tires for a dry track or a wet track

Dry tires are generally called 'slicks' because they have no tread on the them (despite the fact F1 slicks have grooves on them). They can be soft or hard. For the most part soft tires are faster but don't last as long and hard tires are slower but last longer.

Wet tires have grooves and cuts in them to pump water from under the tread and maintain grip on the track. They too are available in 2 formats. Intermediate tires are somwhere between a slick and a full wet tire for when the track is a little wet. Monsoon tires are for when the track is very wet. The condition of the track determines what tire is used.

The dirty side of the grid is a simple concept. At the start of the race the cars line up two by two on the front staight in order to take the start. When the track is being used, the cars drive on only one side of the track because it is the ideal place to be in order to go fast. As a result one side of the track is constantly being 'cleaned' by the passing cars and therefore results in one side of the track being clean and the other dirty. The dirt comes from sand, dirt, and tire particles that cover the track surface and affect traction. At the start of the race the cars on the 'clean' side of the track have more grip and can make a better start than those on the 'dirty' side and there is your advantage. Therefore positions 2,4,6,8..etc are on the 'dirty' side of the track.

 

Tires have different compounds, softer tires stick better but wear out quicker. Harder compounds take a little while longet to warm up don't stick quite as well but last longer. Intermediate tires are a cross between wet tires {full wets} and dry tires, which are called slicks because there we no grooves in them until a few years ago. The FIA put 4 grooves/ treads in the tires to give them less grip, in an effort to slow the cars down, like raising the center of gravity and making the car skinnier. Flat spots are what happens when a wheel locks up under braking or a spin and the rubber in contact with the ground wears much quickly {liquefying of sorts}, this causes a vibration in the wheel which is felt by the driver in his hands and the steering wheel. <Quite bad vibrations can cause the car to come in for a pit stop.

The race track has a "racing line", the fastest way around the track. This is the "clean" line because all the cars drive on it and little pieces of debris and rubber turn into "marbles" or "slag" and this makes the track "dirty" and in some cases. like the out side of a turn slippery. Getting into the first bit of this is sometimes called the "cushion", you know you're dancing on the edge of excitement here. On the straight-a-ways, where most grids are, there will only be one racing line and only half of the field will be lined up on the clean side, the others start on the dirty or "not-used-as-much-side". Depending on what track you're watching, the pole sitter and all the rest behind him can be on the dirty line. Generally only one side of the grid is dirty. There are more marbles or slag on the dirty side, so traction can be lacking, that's why turns cause so much drama within F1. The tires get shredded over the laps and form a lot of rubbery, slippery films and once you're in it, you lose traction.

 

My guide to the F1 2007 tires:

F1 this season has 6 different tire types.

Super Soft
Soft
Medium
Hard

Wet (Intermediate)
Extreme Wet (Monsoon, full wet)

For each race, Bridgestone brings two of the dry compounds. They decide based on the track's abrasiveness, weather predictions, and other historical knowledge of the track and how it wears on tires. Of the two compounds bring, the softer of the two is marked with a white stripe in one of the tires grooves. Each driver must use at least one set of each of the two dry compounds during the race. However, if the race is declared wet, this rule goes out the window.

Here are some of the tire choices by Bridgestone at some of the most recent races.
China: Hard, Medium
Belgium: Medium, Soft
Italian: Medium, Soft
Turkey: Hard, Medium
Hungary: Soft, Super Soft

The wet tires are called by a few different names. The official names from Bridgestone are wet and extreme wet. Historically, they have been called intermediate and full wet. This can be confusing as the teams often use the wet/extreme names while the Speed Channel announcers will use the inter/full wet names.

 

Wow, what a lot of good information.. thanks guys!

So.. I combined all the information above to understand this better, but I still want confirm the following:
I understand that the soft tires wear out faster (no arguments there).. but I see that they are stickier, yet quicker?

As for the "dirty" side of the grid... why do drivers talk about starting on the dirty side? Shouldn't the entire track be equally clean when they are starting?

~shahedc
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1st post, I hope I add some value:

Stickier (soft tire), meaning BETTER GRIP through turns at a higher speed, accelerating, AND decelerating quicker compared to a harder tire. Thus, quicker times around the track .5 to 1sec per lap is a huge difference. Temperature is also important, soft tire heating up quicker means the soft compound can get stickier earlier in the race than a harder tire would ( harder thicker compound takes a little longer time to heat up and get ALMOST as sticky as the soft). Remember it is the total time over 60+ laps thats counts, so the sooner you can get to lower times around the track the higher chance you have of getting up front. Strategy is everything, hard tires last longer, so when the soft tire guy is in the pit the hard tire guy can still run a few more laps, thus maybe capturing the lead (but of course that doesnt matter if the soft tire guy had built up such a huge lead from the beginning. Think about this, 30 laps completed with one guy completing each lap 1 second faster than the other driver. After 30 laps how far ahead would the first driver be in front of the other racer? 30 seconds which is huge (one car flys by and 30 secs passes before the other guy comes by). Now, that does NOT mean soft tires are better: the car,the driver, set-up and suspension, camber, braking, cooling, downforce, engine top speed, torque etc. matter as well. This is the beauty of F1.

2nd question: Im not sure if it's just a figure of speech but Im gonna give an educated guess:
I don't think they clean the track again before the race starts, it would probably take a full day just to do that. The track is still littered with debris from the time trials the previous day, practice runs THAT morning by all teams before the race AND if there was a GP2 (Formula 1 minor league) race on that track that same weekend, you can "fuggataboutit" there will be a dirty side at the start. I dont think F1 cares about keeping the whole track "clean" all the time because it adds to the challenge and "purity" of the sport, just a guess though.

Swil

 

ok, that takes care of all the questions I had for now! Excellent post, Swil!

Maybe we can keep this thread and open for future questions that I may have, or for other F1 fans too..

~shahedc
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My thought is, if the stickier tires can't make your lap times quicker, then your set up is wrong. Softer tires are quicker when the car is running correctly.

Dirty side when starting because during the race all cars are still on the "racing line", they don't drive 3 wide like in NASCAR. So even before an F1 race, one side is dirty.