Bridgestone to paint tyre grooves white

By Steven De Groote on 31 Mar 2007, 12:07

Bridgestone have been thinking of ways to mark the option tyres so that they are visibly while the cars are driving. The Australian race showed that the big white circle painted on the sidewalls of the tyres was not a very good solution. Two alternatives were tested in Sepang. One consisted of a bigger red dot on the sidewalls, while the other was to paint one of the tyre grooves white. As the image shows this is by far the better solution. Bridgestone has therefore decided to use this marking system to indicate the option tyre during the next Grand Prix weekend at Sepang, Malaysia.

Comments

By vyselegend on 01-04-2007 at 01:28

I find this new solution particulary inesthetical, but I back it up. It resolve problems of clarity whatever the view is (including on board), and also it\'s better than the rim colouring idea, which would inevitably upset some sponsors because colours are used as identity marks by them.

By NDR008 on 01-04-2007 at 01:54

I still would prefer had the rule not existed all together. This high secrecy tactics is all part of what made F1 what it is or rather used to be - as things seem to be going backwards in my opinion right now. Aspecially with next year\'s lack of TC and standard ECUs....

By G-Rock on 01-04-2007 at 19:01

I think it\'s the F1 solution that everyone has been waiting for to this problem. Brilliant! It doesn\'t want its fans to think that it\'s copying Champ/Indycar too much now does it? F1 already copied the safety car, refueling, control CPU\'s and now the soft/hard compound tire choice but did so with it\'s own interpretation and implementation. But hey, Champcar is now looking at implementing standing starts in some of its racing. It\'s good to see that the FIA isn\'t too stuck up, and isn\'t afraid to cherrypick idea\'s from other series.

By teecof1fan on 02-04-2007 at 06:16

i do think its silly that F1 just didnt put a continuous marking all the way round the sidewall a la champ car, but i dont think f1 is copying the soft/hard tyre compound thing. F1 wanted to reduce costs, so they went to one tyre supplier. it is bridgestone\'s idea, not F1\'s (or champ car\'s for that matter) to use two different compounds during a race. they do this so tyres (and therefore bridgestone) remain a \'story\' in the racing. otherwise we would be talking about something besides the tyres methinks

By Biv on 02-04-2007 at 20:25

This whole tire marking thing is completely ridiculous. If the FIA feel that this is what they have to resort to make things exciting, then they\'ve lost the plot. Part of F1 is the mystery and excitement of trying to figure out what each other is doing.

Bring back the slicks, reduce the downforce and just them race!

By jddh1 on 02-04-2007 at 22:22

I agree with the \"just them race\" comment. The only thing is that they want to keep talking about the Bridgestone brand on race weekends, so they completely made up this rule. I think it\'s BS, but I don\'t pay the F1 teams\' bills, so I\'ll leave it to them.

The only thing I wanna question about this choice is whether the pain will affect the grip of the tire.

By G-Rock on 03-04-2007 at 03:37

You just wait, soon Bridgetown will be offering those type of tire markings on their road tires and they\'ll sell like crazy. I think it\'s one of the coolest things since traction control. It\'s an elegant solution. I am one who DOES like to know what type of tires a car is on. Why not?

By Steven on 03-04-2007 at 18:29

So do I G-Rock, it adds a bit of ease for us to understand car\'s performances, and more importantly the lack of it during some stages of a race.
To me this is the best possible solution I can think of. I am however curious to see how much laps those stripes will stay white ;)

By Saribro on 04-04-2007 at 14:44

Judging from the testing sessions, there won\'t be much left at the end of a stint, as they\'re painting the inner groove, which takes the most wear.

By jddh1 on 04-04-2007 at 15:20

...that\'s probably gonna change after this gp. i bet you they\'ll paint the outer ones next time.

By johny on 04-04-2007 at 15:32

it\'s the second inner groove

By vis on 06-04-2007 at 11:03

Bridgestone read my post and got this idea!

http://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewto ... 9833#49833