Bigbird wrote ...
Sadly, that means most cars are only truly competitive for 10/15 laps in
every race. The rest of the time, they're marking time, waiting for the
'best' time to change tyres, hoping to fuck they gain some slight
advantage for a couple of laps over the other cars. Get it wrong and
you become the rabbit in the race.
This article by Gary Anderson is interesting, coming from a true insider
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/17816565
In particular this part
"...It was also interesting to hear Mercedes' Michael Schumacher
complain about the Pirelli tyres.
He is a professional racing driver, and it's all about looking after
your tyres. You do that by getting the right balance on the car.
When I was involved with Bridgestone tyres with Jordan in the early
2000s, in the middle of the tyre war with Michelin, Schumacher and
Ferrari had tyres we were not even allowed to look at.
They cost so much money that Bridgestone could not afford to supply them
to everyone. And whenever we did have an opportunity to run a derivative
of those tyres, our lap times were much, much better.
It's a bit sad that Michael now sees things the other way around,
because a lot of his competitiveness in those days was down to the
working relationship he and Ferrari had with Bridgestone, one to which
nobody else had access..."