Tires are an essential part of your car’s performance, perhaps more so now than ever before. They have always been at the center of many dramas, and this world championship will be no exception. Until now, rule 2.4c had never really been used. This rule sets the minimum diameter of a tire at 109.00mm and the maximum at 120.00mm. This important rule will direct manufacturers’ technical choices to provide the best-performing regulation tire possible. Since a mold costs a lot of money, it’s vital for manufacturers not to make any mistakes!
Today’s European tracks are becoming harder and harder, and according to the type of soil, they can be more or less abrasive. The Redovan track is no exception. It’s perfectly made, it’s a fantastic track, there’s no doubt about it, but since the start of the event, we’ve noticed that the tires are showing quite a lot of wear. When you look at the condition of the tires after 20 minutes, it’s clear that few brands will be able to go the distance and finish without having to change tires.
The Sacile Euro also highlighted this phenomenon, even though the track is quite “soft” compared to this one. Anyone who saw Juan Carlos Canas’ tires after his Euro win can attest that they really were on the limit. With this in mind, Matrix owner Cristian Boni confirmed that he had approached EFRA to find out their line on the regulations just after the race was run, i.e. over a month ago.
What happened in the meantime? No idea, but a consultative meeting between EFRA, IFMAR and the manufacturers would have been a good thing to bring some light to the matter. It wouldn’t have come as a surprise when the wear of tires was obvious at the world event. We had to wait for an on-site meeting where all the brands were called together before the international authorities could talk about the famous 2.4c. As the manufacturer whose tires were on the fastest qualifying car, Jason Ruona of JConcepts stated:
From the side of JConcepts, we were definitely targeted here. As the past several events including the Euros, we had pre semi-final and A-Final technical inspection of the tires and not post race technical inspection. Since some things in the rules are not quite clear of when or if they are to inspect the size, they had a meeting today to decide this. I would say, the notice put out by IFMAR doesn’t quite explain everything and watching the video here explains the situation more accurately.
In qualifying, and races up to about 20 minutes in length it’s shown our tires pass the technical inspection with the height our racers are running the inserts at. The issue comes with racing past this distance, constant abuse of the inserts, high rate of wear and high speed banking corners cause a lot of size wear of the inserts.
Of course, no brand is pointed out as being non-compliant but with such demanding conditions, tire manufacturers are also on their guard, since even with a tire designed to meet the regulations, there’s no guarantee that wear won’t cause the tires to fail, since as 2.4c states, checks will be conducted after the 60 minutes of the final. But one thing’s for sure: the regulations apply to everyone, and it’s the drivers’ responsibility to ensure that their cars are in conformity, as regards fuel, tank size, etc… If there are any further discussions, we’ll be sure to let you know. In the meantime, watch this space!
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