Aston Martin has admitted that its unusual scrubbed tyre strategies in Formula One this year were motivated more by improving pitstops than by being creative with curing compounds.
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The Silverstone-based team distinguished out on the grid this year for routinely entering grand prix races with no new medium or hard compound tyres. That was because it routinely washed race sets of tyres for a single lap during free practise sessions. The method sparked speculation that the team was using it because it felt that subjecting tyres to a regulated and gentle heat cycle on a practise lap would make the cured compounds more durable in race conditions. However, Aston Martin’s performance director Tom McCullough noted that the strategy was inspired by the company’s need to improve its live pitstop tyre practise.
Aston Martin chose to do something different after its pit crew struggled to adjust to the heavier 18-inch tyres this year, especially given the increased pressure when a vehicle comes in at racing speeds. “At the start of the year, we were really struggling with pitstops: we were the eighth, ninth, or tenth best team at pitstops,” McCullough explained. And you can’t race tactically if your pitstops are inconsistent and terrible. “In practise, we discovered that we weren’t too bad. However, as the cars rolled into the box, particularly in a stack position, we suffered for a variety of reasons. So we started off by just saying: ‘hey, if we can do live pitstop practise over a race weekend, it helps. So, how many can we manage?’ “We frequently do it on tyres that we don’t even use in races. So it’s just to try out the pitstop practise. That is the primary motivation for doing it.”
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F1 tyre manufacturer Pirelli had noted Aston Martin’s scrubbed tyre methods this year, but had always questioned if they provided any performance benefit. “I spoke to Aston Martin several times about it and in my opinion, with our tyres, with the characteristics of our compound, this is not very advantageous, I will say,” Pirelli’s head of F1 and automobile racing Mario Isola stated recently when asked if there were advantages to be made by scrubbing tyres. “However, it is their choice. It is not prohibited. And they are capable of doing so. This lap is typically used to scrub the tyre, possibly removing the peak of grip while stabilising the compound. However, it is dependent on how the compound is built. “But, given our product and the level of curing of the compound, I would say that isn’t really making a difference.”
