Cool runnings

F1 teams are known to be utilising brake cooling for rim heating, tyre warming, and even additional aero performance. But just how do they do this?

- GEMMA HATTON

There is a reason why the F1 pit lane is obsessed with tyres, and it’s because tyre management is the single biggest performance differentiator between all the teams across the grid. You can have all the horsepower and downforce in the world, but if you can’t transform that load into tyre grip, you will forever lose lap time.

Teams use every trick in the book to not only try and bring the tyres up to their optimum working temperature, but to maintain that temperature throughout the race. The latter is particularly challenging because as the rubber wears away during longer stints, there is less tread to generate that internal heat, and tyre carcass temperatures decrease and drop out of the working window. When engineers say tyre management is a ‘black art’, they are not joking.

‘The tyres have a very narrow working window, and it is a real challenge to keep them in that window from start to finish of a stint,’ says Andrew Green, technical director at Racing Point. ‘It’s easy to go over the working window at the beginning of the stint, and it’s easy to fall below it by the end. Trying to keep the tyres in that middle region, and all at the same time, is what we aim for. We don’t get it right all the time. If I’m honest, we hardly get it right at all.’

Blowing hot and cold

One of the key tactics to managing this sensitive rubber is to utilise the hot air that has been used to cool the brakes to transfer heat to the rim, which then radiates that heat through to the tyres. This rim-heating effect is not revolutionary, and has been used by teams for many years, across many categories. However, with the 2019 regulations reducing the window of opportunity for aerodynamicists, and the tyres continuing to be so temperature sensitive, this continues to be one of the key areas of development.