Formula 1 Is Making One of Its Biggest Changes in Decades. Here's Why

[kobayashiGT]

Source: https://www.gearpatrol.com/cars/a38402676/formula-1-18-inch-tires/

Pirelli is one of the biggest names in tires. Pirelli tires feature prominently in our best all-terrain and best-winter tire buying guides; Pirelli makes the stock treads for everything from the Pagani Huayra supercar to the Rivian R1T pickup. Sure, Pirelli doesn't produce the world's premier restaurant guide or sponsor the pre-eminent non-rigid airship, butut even if you know nothing about tires, you may have heard the name Pirelli because of one factor: their sponsorship of Formula 1.

As of this story's writing, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen are battling for the F1 title over the final races. But whoever wins will do so on Pirelli tires, and sport a Pirelli hat on the podium. And it's Pirelli that will spearhead one of the sport's biggest historical changes for the 2022 season. Formula 1 is abandoning its 13-inch wheels — the standard for decades — for 18-inch ones.

Moving to bigger wheels is not a change that teams, in particular, were itching to make. The lower profile tires force designers to rethink not just suspensions but almost every other part of the car. But there are some compelling reasons Pirelli and F1 have decided to go that route.

The new wheels are important for branding

F1 and Pirelli sell the sport as the pinnacle of automotive performance. But for that to work, that performance has to resonate with the broader automotive world. Pirelli got involved with F1 to sell its tires, and the sport has increased its profile, particularly in the eastern part of the world. The new 18-inch wheels look far more like the performance tires they sell than the dated 13-inch wheels with chunky tires and a potbellied sidewall.

Not looking dated is also important for Formula 1. For Mario Isola, Pirelli Motorsport's head of F1 and car racing, shifting to 18-inch wheels is also part of a comprehensive effort to update the sport's image.

"Why the change? I believe it’s part of the process that Liberty Media started a few years ago to give an image to Formula 1 – a more modern image," Isola said.

 

The new wheels help Pirelli develop road tires

Pirelli argues that F1 is not just a banding gambit, it's vital to their testing and development for their road tires. Knowledge learned at the extreme limits in Formula 1 trickles down into their consumer product, and moving to 18 inches — far closer in shape to the tire they would sell for a Ferrari — makes that testing even more valuable. "Racing at this level pushes innovation," Pirelli's R&D head Piero Misani said. "And what we can experiment in the world of racing is immediately transferred."

Formula 1 helps Pirelli in a few key areas. One is developing tires for electric cars. EVs are heavier than combustion cars, F1 cars are not — but the extreme downforce they generate can replicate the increased load heavy EVs put on tires. "The downforces coming from Formula 1 are by far the highest you could have in any car competition," Misani said. "What in Formula 1 is downforce is, in the electric vehicle extra weight. High load capacity. But the mechanism is the same."

F1 is particularly important for testing materials when constructing a tire. The most advanced polymers and grip-enhancing resins often get their start in F1 before ending up in road cars. Pirelli also learns a great deal for its tires when it comes to rain performance. One of the reasons F1 cars can go racing in the wet (most of the time) is they displace an incredible amount of water with a limited tread profile.

F1 has also dramatically enhanced Pirelli's development process, as the sport uses some of the world's most advanced virtualization technology. Virtual tire development that started in racing is now critical to Pirelli development with OEM manufacturers. And it leads to better tires.

"With virtualization you have a clear understanding of the change you made and the effect you get," Misani said. "You become faster, cheaper — but also cleverer."

The new wheels may make F1 racing better...potentially

Pirelli believes its new 2022 tires will address many of the drivers' complaints about the current tires — inconsistency and overheating. This should create an environment to help the drivers — not the tires — be the center of attention.

"Tires next year will be more consistent," Isola said. "We tried to design a new family of compounds with a different concept, with less overheating, with a wider working range. The potential risk is that we have the majority of the races on one stop because of the characteristics of the tire."

But Isola says that less tire-strategy-dominating races would not necessarily be a bad thing.

"This doesn’t mean that races will be boring or worse because of that," Isola said. "If we have action on track and drivers that are pushing and they overtake each other, that is good for the show. So this is exactly what we want to see. It is not that two-stop or one-stop is making the race better or worse."

One note of caution Isola offers is that the new 18-inch wheels have not been tested on the 2022 cars yet — because those cars don't yet exist. Much of the testing was performed on retrofitted 2019 cars. So we won't know the true characteristics until they officially get on track.

Quote

Is the tyre gonna be more expensive? Because the last time I was driving a van that comes with a 13" tyre and current driving a sedan with 17" tyres, the price is world apart!!!!!! 🤣

 

[Beregond]

i dun know if the rules only allow 1 brand of tyre manufacture ?

or the rest of the major brand simply got no interest in providing tyres for f1 ( bridgestone, goodyear, michelin )

but its boring looking at all the cars using pirelli every year. 

[Blueray]

20 minutes ago, Beregond said:

i dun know if the rules only allow 1 brand of tyre manufacture ?

or the rest of the major brand simply got no interest in providing tyres for f1 ( bridgestone, goodyear, michelin )

but its boring looking at all the cars using pirelli every year. 

ya, was much more interesting when it was Bridgestone vs Michelin. more variables. 

now only hard, medium, soft. 

 

[Mkl22]

actually in SG, i dont see pirelli selling that well. conversely those who have gotten out of F1, ie Michelin and Bridgestone seem to have done better commercially.

not sure how their supporting F1 brings them more money. I think F1 is over rated.

[Beregond]

7 minutes ago, Mkl22 said:

actually in SG, i dont see pirelli selling that well. conversely those who have gotten out of F1, ie Michelin and Bridgestone seem to have done better commercially.

not sure how their supporting F1 brings them more money. I think F1 is over rated.

i think BS  is the number 1 tyre maker for many years already , should still be currently.

1 of the very fast rising brand is hankook. quite surprise by them. They manage to get the contract to supply moe tyres for benz.

[Blueray]

8 minutes ago, Mkl22 said:

actually in SG, i dont see pirelli selling that well. conversely those who have gotten out of F1, ie Michelin and Bridgestone seem to have done better commercially.

not sure how their supporting F1 brings them more money. I think F1 is over rated.

ya, Pirelli generally pricier than popular Bridgestone, Goodyear, Michelin etc models here.

sometimes those Pirelli Performance Centre shops may have deals. went with my friend to autoworldcare some months back when he needed a set of tyres urgently (one tyre leaking air badly). think there was promo on and he paid $105 or $110 each for 16" P7. free lifetime nitrogen, rotation etc.

alright deal lah.

 

[kobayashiGT]

12 minutes ago, Beregond said:

i think BS  is the number 1 tyre maker for many years already , should still be currently.

1 of the very fast rising brand is hankook. quite surprise by them. They manage to get the contract to supply moe tyres for benz.

My last info is that they are no longer the no.1 tyre maker, in terms of volume lah. For performance-wise, to me, they are number 1!

[SGCMmadman]

Better pirelli den F1 using tourador or rydanz or linglong...if not,1 race kena 10 pitstops .🙊🙉🙈

[Beregond]

5 minutes ago, Blueray said:

ya, Pirelli generally pricier than popular Bridgestone, Goodyear, Michelin etc models here.

sometimes those Pirelli Performance Centre shops may have deals. went with my friend to autoworldcare some months back when he needed a set of tyres urgently (one tyre leaking air badly). think there was promo on and he paid $105 or $110 each for 16" P7. free lifetime nitrogen, rotation etc.

alright deal lah.

 

last time yes, esp 10++ years ago, pirelli is  consider the super brand of tyres in SG .

But now i dun think they more expensive then bridgestone or michelin.

last time expensive because its control by pirelli importer ( same as BS , control by AD )

Now all the price drop like crazy already , esp for pirelli. all the PI is forcing local AD  to cut their margin ( by alot )

 

[Beregond]

7 minutes ago, kobayashiGT said:

My last info is that they are no longer the no.1 tyre maker, in terms of volume lah. For performance-wise, to me, they are number 1!

oh ya, u are correct, i go check michelin take over top spot from BS. 

i thought it will never happen,🤣 B.S on top for many many years

( i saw linglong in top 10 😅)

Edited December 3, 2021 by Beregond

[kobayashiGT]

19 minutes ago, Beregond said:

oh ya, u are correct, i go check michelin take over top spot from BS. 

i thought it will never happen,🤣 B.S on top for many many years

( i saw linglong in top 10 😅)

BS scale their production due to pandemic I think.

2025, you will see linglong in top 5 liao. hahaha.

x'mas coming, tyres should be fitted with ling long. then got the festive feeling.

jingle bell (ling long), jingle bell (ling long), jingle all the way! 🤣

[kobayashiGT]

27 minutes ago, SGCMmadman said:

Better pirelli den F1 using tourador or rydanz or linglong...if not,1 race kena 10 pitstops .🙊🙉🙈

If ling long have money to go into F1, they will have the money to hire pirelli engineer to engineer pirelli grade tyre with ling long name on it.

[t0y0ta]

2 hours ago, Beregond said:

i dun know if the rules only allow 1 brand of tyre manufacture ?

or the rest of the major brand simply got no interest in providing tyres for f1 ( bridgestone, goodyear, michelin )

but its boring looking at all the cars using pirelli every year. 

When F1 first started in SG, I remember article talking about the tire supply (was BS then I think). They have to supply (free) lots and lots of tyres to all the teams and also have to do RnD according to their specs. It was very expensive for them... so usually each manufacturer will do a few years then exit.

[DOBIEMKZ]

".....Pirelli believes its new 2022 tires will address many of the drivers' complaints about the current tires — inconsistency and overheating...."

I thought that tall sidewall profile tyres heat up slower or less than low profile ones.

[Beregond]

Just now, t0y0ta said:

When F1 first started in SG, I remember article talking about the tire supply (was BS then I think). They have to supply (free) lots and lots of tyres to all the teams and also have to do RnD according to their specs. It was very expensive for them... so usually each manufacturer will do a few years then exit.

u remember during the 80s -90s

different f1 teams use different brands of tyres.

Rnd confirm expensive. but the advertisement value and exposure from F1 is like unmatchable from other auto event.

Pirelli like doing it for 10 year already 

[Karoon]

How is this biggest change in decades?

It's the change from V12 to v10 then v8 that was massive but made the car boring.

That v12, v10 sound was beastly and sexy. A proper king of the road.

 

Edited December 3, 2021 by Karoon

[Beregond]

14 minutes ago, Karoon said:

How is this biggest change in decades?

It's the change from V12 to v10 then v8 that was massive but made the car boring.

That v12, v10 sound was beastly and sexy. A proper king of the road.

 

still V12, V10, V8, meh.

maybe  next major is all EV liao 😅

[Karoon]

@Beregond it's only v6 today. There's already a full EV class, Formula E.

The sound is like a bicycle race