Yeah
Can someone please explain tire wear for me. During practice laps I see that SS tire wear is 17% and I plan my stra around that % but during the race other teams are running SS tires for 10 laps. how is that possible? Why aren't tires blowing out? If you do basic math SS tires with 17% wear per lap would give them just over 6 laps before a 0% wear.
You're assuming tyre wear is linear at 17% each lap when in fact it's not. Your basic math is as follows...
Start 100%
Lap 1 83% (100 - 17)
Lap 2 66% (83 - 17)
Lap 3 49% (66 - 17)
Lap 4 32% (49 - 17)
Lap 5 15% (32 - 17)
Lap 6 0% (15 - 17)
In reality the tyres wear approx 17% of the remaining life which means that actual wear figures are closer to
Start 100%
Lap 1 83% (100 x 0.83)
Lap 2 69% (83 x 0.83)
Lap 3 58% (69 x 0.83)
Lap 4 49% (58 x 0.83)
Lap 5 41% (49 x 0.83)
Lap 6 35% (41 x 0.83)
The above values are approximate because tyre wear in practice laps are reported as whole numbers and the tyre life remaining after 6 laps is very different if you use two different wear rates of 16.1% and 17% (which I
THINK are both reported as 17%).
The above calculation will get you close to estimating the number of laps you can get out of a set of tyres if you plug in the wear rates reported for your practice laps... Well it works for me.
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