Coincidentally, we had experience of this in the extreme sense only last weekend.
After fitting new to the chassis but worn tyres we would start losing front grip, in the heat (30 degrees) after about only 6 or 7 laps. In practice if we came in sraight away and let the tyres cool they would come back. But if we pushed on for a few laps the tyres, while looking fine, would not offer any grip again. They were literally completely cooked.
The chassis we are using was developped for hard compound VEGA's but the class has now moved to soft Bridgestones. Couple that with a circuit with lots of long flowing corners to build heat and few true straights to cool and this was the result.
Sounds simple in hindsight, but it took us two days of testing and a wasted race weekend to figure out what was going on. No amount of set-up change, moving of weight, change of wheel width, soft and hard axles etc. etc. made any difference.
We are yet to find a cure in the set-up for this circuit when it's hot, but with harder tyres again next year and adjustable camber we might have a chance.
|
|