tire (tyre) performance.

[IL PALLINO]

My first observation was that there's no logical reason for players to have their drivers do more than one qualifying lap due to the performance difference between a set of tires that are brand new compared to a set of tires that have only been used for one lap. (Not counting the out lap and cooldown lap.)

The last time I played the French Grand Prix, I noticed that soft tires were being outperformed by medium tires that still had some grip left. (And just laps before the warning indicator appeared.)

In the Hungarian Grand Prix, my cars jumped out to a three second lead, and then I ordered both of my drivers to drive normally, then the car behind me was one second quicker with the main difference being the opponent's medium tires had 5% more life. (Both of my drivers had 60% left and by no means were struggling for grip.)

[Andy]

There's likely some performance disparity in the cars. WIth them having a quicker car. 5% difference in tire life isn't going to give anyone 1 second advantage.

[IL PALLINO]

Originally posted by Andy:

There's likely some performance disparity in the cars.

Highly unlikely. My cars are the best in everything but DRS acceleration and brake temperature. (The latter is still really good.) Both of my drivers easily qualified 1-2 in Hungary, and jumped out to a commanding lead which also happened to grow with normal driving and a normal ERS strategy.

[Sandbox170]

Nope. Lap time is slower by tyre degradation effect and Driver's Accuracy ability.

If you have Max and a best car, these(tyre degradation and Driver's Accuracy ability) are little . But there makes lots of difference with Williams at the first season.

I have played with Williams for 5 seasons. I worked with Albon and Doohan for first 4 seasons, then changed Albon to Max latest season.

At 2022 season Doohan made lap time difference, 0.100 ~ 0.300 sec, each trial with new soft tyre in the same qualifying session. And he makes little lap time difference on the best car (all of parts without engine cooling, 3rd) now.
For 4 seasons Doohan’s accuracy and smoothness has grown up, Williams car with Max is 0.900 ~ 1.000 sec faster than others in a qualifying. Max makes at least 0.500~0.800 sec gap with one time used soft tyre now.

Just 0.090 sec makes a next qualifying ticket for lower performance teams.


I have a thought for your experience in France & Hungary.

When I played in the third season, I checked tyre performance information provided by the game.

1. Compound Performance
- Average lap
- Competitive performance
- Time loss from degradation(s/lap)

2. Compounds window of FP sessions
- Lifetime / Laps (of Soft, Medium, Hard)

Competitive performance of soft tyre in French is 10~24 laps. Tyre is competitive during 30~100% condition. So you can run 10 laps(all Attack pace) to 24 laps(all Conserve pace) with soft tyre.(You would see this at the tyre strategy window before a race.) Lifetime / Laps of compounds means the last lap at 0% condition.

Presume average lap, time loss from degradation in standard pace and average car performance, we can calculate a lap time of tyres at each lap.

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Caution!!

a. Driver’s ability, car performance and race conditions(DRS train, weather etc) are able to cover cons of tyre strategy.

b. Tyre performance is simulated like real world. Lap times are faster in some laps after pit-out, then slower. You would see this FP. So the game play is different a little.
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I. French Grand Prix: Circuit Paul Ricard

(tyre: competitive lap(at 30% condition) / average lap time / degradation / lap time of first lap)
Soft: 17 / 1:36.500 / 0:00.100 / 1:35.700
Medium: 25 / 1:36.763 / 0:00.070 / 1:35.923
Hard: 36 / 1:37.047 / 0:00.050 / 1:36.172

Lap Time
Lap 9: Soft(1:36.500) vs. Medium(1:36.483)
Lap 11: Soft(1:36.700) vs. Hard(1:36.672)
Lap 14: Medium(1:36.833) vs. Hard(1:36.822)

Race Time
Until Lap 16: Soft(25:43.200) vs. Medium(25:43.168)
Until Lap 17: Soft(27:20.500) vs. Hard(27:20.211)
Until Lap 25: Medium(40:19.075) vs. Hard(40:19.300)

By different degradation of tyres, a lap time of soft tyre is slower then medium at lap 9. A car with soft is behind the medium at lap 16. The largest gap between soft and medium is 0:00.944 at Lap 8. At a view point of tyre, soft must be exchanged at Lap 15.

There are two tyre strategies, Hard/Soft & Hard/Medium. If we run with one pit-stop, competitive condition, Race time likes below.

Hard/Soft
Hard(36 laps): 58:13.692
Soft(17 laps): 27.20.500
Pit-stop: 0:25.000
Race Time: 85:59.192

Hard/Medium
Hard(29 laps): 46:49.288
Medium(24 laps): 38.41.472
Pit-stop: 0:25.000
Race Time: 85:55.760

Hard/Soft strategy is about 3.5 sec slower, we can cover this by other factors(Caution a.) though.(But faster in Hard/Medium strategy, same situation)

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II. Hungarian Grand Prix: Hungaroring

(tyre: competitive lap(at 30% condition) / average lap time / degradation / lap time of first lap)
Soft: 21 / 1:20.562 / 0:00.090 / 1:19.662
Medium: 32 / 1:20.620 / 0:00.060 / 1:19.690
Hard: 45 / 1:20.993 / 0:00.040 / 1:20.113

Lap Time
Lap 2: Soft(1:19.752) vs. Medium(1:19.750)
Lap 11: Soft(1:20.562) vs. Hard(1:20.513)
Lap 23: Medium(1:21.010) vs. Hard(1:20.993)

Race Time
Until Lap 3: Soft(3:59.256) vs. Medium(3:59.250)
Until Lap 20: Soft(26:50.340) vs. Hard(26:49.860)
Until Lap 32: Medium(42:59.840) vs. Hard(43:03.456)

In Hungaroring, Medium is faster every lap(except Lap 1) than Soft in standard pace. Soft race time is 28:11.802 at Lap 21, about 6 sec slower than Medium(28:06.090). Soft is good for qualifying or trying to overtake in last part of race.

And comparing Strategies.

Medium/Hard
Medium(33 laps): 44:21.450
Hard(37 laps): 49.50.821
Pit-stop 1: 0:20.000
Race time: 94:32.271

Soft/Hard/Medium
Soft(17 laps): 22:46.494
Hard(27 laps: 36:17.091
Medium(26 laps): 34:51.440
Pit-stop 1: 0:20.000
Pit-stop 2: 0:20.000
Race Time: 94:35.025

Medium/Medium/Hard
Medium(22 laps): 29:27.040
Medium(22 laps): 29:27.040
Hard(26 laps): 34:55.938
Pit-stop 1: 0:20.000
Pit-stop 2: 0:20.000
Race Time: 94:30.018

In my view, I woud choose Medium/Hard strategy. And another card(Medium/Medium/Hard) in my sleeve.