Can someone help me understand the duration of the tires?

So.. I have a bit of trouble understanding how the tires work, like, an average on how many km/laps a supersoft/soft/medium/etc.. tire will last, how do the percentages work (I read on a similiar thread that the percentages are the grip avaliable). I'm trying to understand but it gets kinda hard doing it alone, thanks in advance for all imputs!
Sorry for my bad english!

 

Depends on how clean you drive and how good the tyres stay in their optimum working frame and which car ^^ They work as long as they are faster than the harder one (regarding the choice for a race).

Or very simplified: when the app shows 98% is still good to go, 97% needs noticeable changes to the driving.

 

Hm... thanks! So its interesting to pit when the tires go around 97%? (depending on the strategy)

 

There is no fixed rule. For pit strategy you need to compare your lap times in each option and see if it is worth the time lost in pits.

Normally 97% is still a lot of grip.

 

It was a very very simplified rule But yeah that's the time where I look deeper at my strategy for the race (I usually do long stint practices before a league event and then comparing times and calculating the pit time into it). But really depends on car, setup, track and so on. For example Huracan GT3 with 97% tyres at Mugello is hell, at Monza not really a problem.

 

The app percentage indicates the maximum available grip, depending on tyre wear, provided the tyres are at optimal pressure and temperature. Temperature is the most noticeable variable with actual grip, as a slightly hot tyre will have less grip than an optimum temp tyre. They wear at a rate related to how clean your driving is, as well as how fast your going through turns. You can put in clean laps (e.g. no sliding) but still wear your tyres faster than if you take ever corner just a touch slower.

 

GT3 cars get real hairy below 95% Would not recommend below 95% for many laps. You can also not be a hooligan like I am and take care of them though.

There is a bunch of multipliers. The reported tyre grip(what tire apps show) and then there is a temperature multiplier according to the optimum temp range. When in the range you get 100% of your .. say 98% worn tire. You could also end up getting, with low temps out of a pit stop, something like 60% grip on a not warmed up tire yet, which percentage may start at 99.5%. Hence why it is understeer city on cold tires

When to pit? Depends on race length and the tyre you're on, what track, how much fuel. Say 1 hour races and you'd look at pitting within a standard 25-35min window. 2-3h race? Hard tires can go for a lot longer, so test them for each track and calculate your strategy. For shorter races, say 45min or even 1 hour softs *could* work if you nurse them. Not all cars can use them, but if you can it might pay off.

 

This is pretty much all we need to know:

 

Thanks guys! This thread really helped me!

 

Each car and compound is quite different and the main thing you really need to look out for is when the grip really starts to drop off aka tyres fall off the cliff. In many cars the softer compound at 96% may still be quicker then the next harder compound at 99% but then you also need to look at temps so if your overheating its likely also blistering the tyres losing more grip. If they are too cold they will start graining and again lose some overall grip you also need to keep an eye on pressure making sure they dont rise or drop too much on any tyre over a race distance.

Pressures for a race will likely be different for qualy as you want to get them to where they stabilize over the longer stint as close to optimum as you can where in qualy you just want them up for your hotlap and the same pressure over a longer stint likely wont work even on the same compound.

Best way to test is simply run some longer runs and try to be as consistent as you can, see how many laps the softs are faster then the mediums. How much do they drop off then see over how many laps is it still faster using the softer compound, do the same with the next compound up. I normally do this just running smooth consistent laps and then at the end of my stint try and push as much as possible to see what is still possible on worn tyres.

If your calculating in a pit stop too then work out how many laps you can run on a certain compound and how much total time is lost in a stop vs a harder compound if your not forced to stop for fuel. The other thing to consider is car balance as your tyres wear or get too hot or cold. If your rears are wearing much faster the car will get much looser and same with if front or rear is hotter or colder then the other side this too will effect balance so you want to choose a compound that stays more consistant in both wear and temps across all tyres to make the car more driveable.

There are still times where it may be quicker to run worn tyres at the end of a stint and deal with changing balance but this makes driving much trickier and best to avoid it if you can unless its clearly the fastest option.

 

Much very useful information in here. Thanks for the explanations