2006 German Grand Prix

[Famine]

Ah - I only looked at the 1993 & 1994 seasons and gave it up as a bad job.

 

[Blake]

The tyre warmers don't heat up the tyre of the carcass very well. They only heat up the tread to 90 degrees (which is still below the optimum).

Well yes, but as it was a pit stop these were tyres that could have been sitting in those tyre warmers for any amount of time. I would be very suprised if the entire tyre wasn’t at an average temperature of 80°C or above (ignoring the wheel). The surface that would be in contact with the track would almost certainly be at 90°C or above.

There is a massive difference between a driver coming out of the pits with a tyre that is at 25°C (or whatever the ambient temp is) compared to another driver who has tyres that are at almost 100°C. There is not a big difference between someone coming out of the pits with tyres that are (arguably) at 90°C compared to someone on track who has tyres at almost 100°C.

Give me a break. A cold tyre in F1 in not the same as a cold tyre in Champ Car, and it means relatively little in F1. The biggest concern would be brakes etc. losing their heat (oh, and once the new wheel goes on the brakes would lose their heat into the magnesium, and that would heat the tyre further).

I appreciate where you are coming from, but think about this: what car has more to give though a corner? A McLaren with new tyres that aren’t quite up to tempurature, or a Williams with older tyres that are up to temp?