I don't know if this adjusts to F1 reality, but it allows me to walk through I think I know, to see if someone can correct any mistakes. It's Pacejka curves for Racer Free.
http://www.racer.nl/dl_beta.htm (includes a Pacejka curve editor).
SA means slip angle (angle between the heading of the wheel and its velocity). The lateral force (red curve) peaks around 6 degrees of SA.
LONG EDIT FOR DUMMIES LIKE ME:
If I'm not wrong (and I've been corrected before.
) the slip angle is the angle between the wheel velocity (or the direction in which the car is moving) and the wheel heading.
When you steer a bit, the wheel does not follow the road precisely. This difference between where the car is moving and where the tyre is pointing, or
slip angle, is what "creates" the lateral force you need to turn.
Conversely, when you accelerate, the wheel turns a little faster than the speed at wich the vehicle is moving. This difference, or
slip ratio, is what pushes you and accelerates the car. In the black curve the peak is around SR of 0.1. This means that the wheel is moving at 110% ground speed. For each 10 turns of the wheel, it slips one (so, I imagine it's squeaking a bit).
The
comments on the curves say that
F1 tyres have a peak lateral force at 6 degrees. The author adds that it is a rather "responsive" tyre, as regular cars have slip angles of 10-15 degrees.
This means that tyres whose lateral force peak around 5 degrees, as nae suggests, are rather "jerky". With relatively small movements of the steering wheel you're thrown sideways.
This also means that when you move the steering wheel, you feel it "heavy" rather quickly. In the previous figure you can see the "momentum" Mz on the steering wheel plotted in the green curve: it's the "force feedback" you feel in your gaming steering wheel.
It peaks around 2-3 degrees of SA (peak of the green curve). Notice that the peak of the lateral force (red curve) happens at a larger SA of 6 degrees, which means that with this particular curve you should twist the wheel until you pass the "hard point", drifting a little (4 degrees), to get maximum lateral force.
If you turn the wheel enough (over 12 degrees of SA), the green curve crosses the horizontal axle. You get a negative feedback: the wheel "wishes" to turn more by itself, you've kind of locked the steering wheel.
Finally, the last thing I get from the figure is that there is no precise "slip angle" that belongs to the tyre. The 5-6 degrees figure is simply a peak in the lateral force.
So, if you go over the peak lateral force because you turn the wheel too much, it's not like the wheel stops delivering force at all. There is a residual force, even if you're wearing the wheel "too much".
Depending on how fast the red curve "goes down" the tyre is more or less forgiving: you won't slide that much if you overreact to the road.
For example, this curve, from EA F1-2002, also given at the Racer site, is very forgiving: it stays at the top after the peak and only gradually the force diminishes. You can move a lot the wheel without locking the wheels.
I don't know if this means that some simulators can "dumb" your senses, but I suspect so.
