Williams’s Sam Michael has predicted that pit stop battles between teams are going to become even more exciting in 2010 now they will come down to a straight tyre-changing race.
The ban on mid-race refuelling for the first time since 1993 means pit stops will become even shorter this season, with pit crews now just required to change all four tyres.
With stops likely to take between just three and four seconds to complete, Michael believes today’s crews are set to create an exciting pit-stop spectacle.
“How fast these guys are changing the tyres is bloody impressive and it’s going to be a really good show I think in Formula 1,” Williams’s technical director told reporters at last week’s Valencia test.
Formula 1 is unique in terms of pit-stop times because a lot of other categories either don’t have pit stops or they have a limited number of people in pit stops, so they are generally slow. “But the pit-stop times in Formula 1…it is going to be an impressive race.
“So I think they will easily smash the previous records.”
Williams posted on its official Twitter page last month that its crew had managed to dip below the 3s mark for a tyre-change stop in a practice at its Grove base.
And while Michael doesn’t think stops will prove to be quite as quick as that in a pressurised grand prix environment, he reckons that the fact crews will be striving to complete the tyre changes more quickly all the time mean slip-ups are inevitable.
Asked if the thought more mistakes would be made with tyres changes this year, he said: “Absolutely.
“To be honest they’ve been on a cruise for 15 years because they are fuel limited.
“So they could have a spare four seconds up their sleeve in previous times.
“So there was no desire to push them for those last two or three tenths because as you push for those two or three tenths you make mistakes, so you’d rather say slow down by half a second to make sure you get it right.”
In a bid to alleviate fears that the disappearance of fuel strategy will make races more processional, the F1 Commission last week agreed to introduce a new tyre rule which will see drivers who reached Q3 having to start the race on the same tyres that they used for the final part of qualifying.
With the top-10 shootout having reverted to a low-fuel battle for pole, Michael reckons the new rule should in theory ensure strategic elements remain a feature of races – but admits this will only really be achieved if the gap between the two tyre compounds is reasonably big.
“I think it’s a good thing because if you look at the grid otherwise, it’s just purely formed on pace order,” he said.
It will only make a difference if you’ve got a big difference between the prime and option [compound].
“If they are only one or two tenths apart it won’t make a big difference at all because everyone will just take the prime because they won’t risk taking the option.
“But ideally if you’ve got an option [tyre] that’s four or five tenths quicker then you’ll get people on the edge of seventh, eighth and ninth saying ‘right, I’m close enough to get to third or fourth if I take the option and I’ll just put up with holding everyone up for the first stint.'
“So it will create some differentiator – like the fuel load did. It’s a semi-replacement for what the fuel load used to do when people used to vary their first stint.


source[www.itv-f1.com]

 

You spell "tire" funny.

 

I spell "tires" the same way tyres because it is the right way to spell it