Quote: Originally posted by king.stromba on 18 February 2004
Its the San Marino test session in February. Its very wet. The top 10 times of the day have been set on Michelins. Ferrari is down in 11th and 12th place, the first two cars on Bridgestones. Michelin is clearly the tyre to have. The bridgstones are not working in the wet, and the Bridgestone shod cars are proping up the back of the grid. They have an inferior tyre for these conditions. Ferrari work on setup all day and by the end of the day they get their cars to perform 6th and 7th fastest times. All the other places in the top ten are still Michelin shod cars. At the end of day two, its still raining the same, no difference in track conditions, Ferrari work extra hard on setup and they get their cars to 5th and 6th fastest times. All the other top 10 are still Michelin shod cars.
Now at the start of day 3, its still raining, exactly the same conditions, Michelin offer ferrari a couple of sets of Michelins, exactly the same tyre used by the other top ten cars to such good effect.
THE QUESTION IS - IF THE FERRARIS BOLT ON THESE TYRES WITHOUT CHANGING SETUP WILL THEY GO FASTER OR SLOWER
IMO they will drop way back down the grid again, probably all the way back to the back DESPITE HAVING THE BEST TYRE FOR THE CONDITIONS. The reason being that the Ferrari is set up to run BRIDGESTONES. The setup is so intrinsically linked to tyres in formula one that a car cannot swap tyres without completely revising setup. EVEN IF THOSE TYRES ARE BETTER
Formula one teams often take a whole season to get used to a new tyre manufacturer. Williams had a huge advantage over McLaren when McLaren switched to Michelins, as Williams already had a whole seasons experience with them
Now with the Clio Williams, i am not arguing that set up is AS CRITICAL as in formula one. But the same principle applies.
TO SWAP TYRES EFFECTIVELY YOU HAVE TO TEST NEW TYRES AND EVALUATE THEN NEXT TO THE ORIGINAL TYRE. Snapping on a new set and thinking its an improvement is subjective and IMO stupid, if your goal is to maintain the original handling characteristsics. These original characteristics are what makes a Williams a Williams, and what makes a Williams as fast as it is on country roads.
And to argue that road cars are a compromise and therefore improvable is a mute point. Formula one cars are compromises. All cars are compromises. As are planes, warships, space shuttles, and every other thing ever created. Even the human body is a massive compromise. Because something is a compromise doesnt mean it is easily improved. Try improving the human body. You cant, i cant, nobody can. Sometimes a compromise is unimprovable for the reason that it is THE BEST COMPROMISE of all the choices.