Rubber rings

High-downforce cars run very stiff suspensions and tyres can experience a bigger vertical deflection than the suspension itself

Vertical stiffness is linked to a tyre’s structural behaviour, and to the shape and dimensions of the contact patch, under different loading conditions

Everymotion a vehicle experiences is related to the forces the tyres exchange with the ground

Explaining vehicle dynamics, the handling and performance of a racecar, is impossible without mentioning the role of tyres. The four rubber rings provide the point of contact between cars and road and, consequently, every motion a vehicle experiences is related to the forces the tyres exchange with the ground.

Unfortunately, tyres are probably the most complex subsystem of a racecar, and one of the few components that are not completely understood. It is a multi-disciplinary field of study, with the different materials employed in their construction leading to very different interactions with the track, and alternative behaviour within the tyre itself.

For a long time, knowledge about tyres was very poor, and mainly based on an empirical approach, at least for those that actually use the tyres, including race engineers. This is partially still the case in the lower stages of the motorsport ladder, where small teams have restricted resources. Even if they could, they would likely invest in more track days instead of modelling to better understand tyre behaviour.

This culture seems to have changed at higher levels in motorsport, though, where serious organisations understand how important a solid knowledge of tyres is, and how much a team can gain in terms of performance with good data and effective models that can help