Matt
There is clearly some level of time loss but I think it needs to be slightly greater, A worn out SS would still likely be as quick as a S with a decent fuel load, however that would wipe out people pushing the tyres to their limit and reduce chances of a SS three stop (full race distance) strategy, it’s a fine balance I’m just talking from my opinion as I prefer to drive lighter faster stints rather than filling heavy and getting an overcut.
The cliffs vary in how much performance is lost for different tires. For all the tires, the first cliff is about 52%, but supers are still easily able to go beyond that. The furthest you want to take supers is 30%, any further and you'll be slower than the guys who pit for softs, even with higher fuel. But it's a different story for softs, you don't wanna take them below 45%, because their speed at that % is slower than a fresh set of softs or meds with high fuel. The meds can go to 50% and any further you'll be losing time. The cliffs are well defined now you can see losing time at 52, 45, 40, and 30.
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