Tyres
CTDP 2006 will feature 10 tyre compounds, from super soft to super hard, with two compounds in each category. Those compounds are classified in terms of temperatures they work on. The tyres will be different depending on the tyre manufacturer, Michelin or Bridgestone, and will have different behaviours and different kind of possibilities. Also, it will feature a harder ‘construction’ for USA Speedway, as in real life.
The most important attribute of the tyres will be the temperature. It is important to know the working temperature of each compound and try to maintain it near those values. The gain or loss of grip if we are racing in the range of those temperatures will be critical. Because of that it is recommended, as with brakes, to take care to make in ensuring the tyres are near their optimum working range. Slowing down will result in rapid cool of the tyres. As such, it is important to keep a reasonably fast pace during the warm-up lap, before trying to do a qualification lap, where it’s so vital to have to heat in the tyres near to the optimum working temperature. Another crucial moment for the tyres, is during Safety Car and reconnaissance laps before a race, where it will be important to maintain the temperature in optimum ranges. In fact ideally you would want to slightly overheat your tyres before the race, while forming at the front of the grid to ensure your tyres have near ideal temperatures going into Turn 1, and getting off to a good launch from the start line for that matter.
Another aspect that we have to explain is the grip that tyres will offer. The tires have 3 stages of grip level. The first one (5%-10% of total tyre life) the grip will decrease faster, so we only have one or two opportunities to do a fast lap, in qualification, for example. The second stage, the grip will decrease slowly and will be almost non appreciable. This stage is the 80% of total tyre life. The last one will be from 5%-10% of final tyre life, just before the tyre reaches the canvas, and the grip will decrease faster than any other stage. Optimum temperature is always 6C above the initial temperature of the tyres. This makes it relatively straight forward to know the optimum temperature.
| Compound | Track temperature | tyre temperature |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | cold | 90C |
| 01 | hot | 93C |
| 02 | cold | 90.67C |
| 02 | hot | 93.67C |
| 10 | cold | 96C |
| 10 | hot | 99C |
Tyre pressure is also a critical function. Ideal tyre pressure mainly is dependant on track, slowest tracks require the least, faster tracks require the most. At the rear, roughly 110kpa is ideal for Monaco, and up to 125kpa is ideal for Barcelona. Front pressure should always be 5-10kpa higher.
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CTDP User Manual by Cars & Tracks Development Project is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Deutschland license.