Observations on tire choice and final results

[yanaran]

I hope this is not too much off topic as it' not directly related to the WRS, but I've observed an interesting trend in the results the last few weeks. In every discussion I've seen about the good or bad about "Racing Softs", sooner or later someone says soft tires make it easy and you'll see a larger separation between good and bad drivers as you go to harder compounds as that would require more "skill". Since we have a large group of people already sorted in divisions according to ability (not saying perfectly ordered but as good as can be expected) I think we make out the perfect test subjects for this debate.

I've looked at the gap in "par" times for each division, which I assume is the estimated time for someone with a perfect divisional handicap (1.0, 2.0, etc):

W19: D1 par: 1'08.900 (68.900s) - Gap: 1.648s (2.4%) - Tires: Racing Soft
W18: D1 par: 1'50.693 (110.693s) - Gap: 1.101s (1.0%) - Tires: Sport Soft
W17: D1 par: 1'33.631 (93.631s) - Gap: 1.406s (1.5%) - Tires: Racing Hard
W16: D1 par: 1'39.176 (99.176s) - Gap: 1.186s (1.2%) - Tires: Comfort Soft
W15: D1 par: 1'18.225 (78.225s) - Gap: 0.846s (1.1%) - Tires: Sport Soft
(reservations for fat fingers when punching numbers on my phone)

Now this is not a perfect study, but from just looking at the last 5 weeks it seems to clearly dispute the argument that soft tires make it "easier" for slower drivers to catch up. The largest divisional gap by far is in the last week with soft racing tires, and the second largest gap is on hard racing tires.

Thoughts?

 

[jbrinkley0826]

I think it has more to do with the car then it does tires. To me, its much easier handling a front wheel drive 80 hp car compared to a bohemian rocket like we had this previous week... the slower the car, the better opportunity for the less skilled. I think its because the throttle and brake aren't near as important, its more about hitting your marks and being dead on... with a car that has more HP, then you have hit your marks of course, but braking and accelerating are the keys to making a good lap... just like this previous track, you could really screw up the entry into a corner, but as long as you were on the gas and not sideways coming out you were still in good shape. just my opinion and I have no data to back that up.

 

[CSLACR]

I hope this is not too much off topic as it' not directly related to the WRS, but I've observed an interesting trend in the results the last few weeks. In every discussion I've seen about the good or bad about "Racing Softs", sooner or later someone says soft tires make it easy and you'll see a larger separation between good and bad drivers as you go to harder compounds as that would require more "skill". Since we have a large group of people already sorted in divisions according to ability (not saying perfectly ordered but as good as can be expected) I think we make out the perfect test subjects for this debate.

I've looked at the gap in "par" times for each division, which I assume is the estimated time for someone with a perfect divisional handicap (1.0, 2.0, etc):

W19: D1 par: 1'08.900 (68.900s) - Gap: 1.648s (2.4%) - Tires: Racing Soft
W18: D1 par: 1'50.693 (110.693s) - Gap: 1.101s (1.0%) - Tires: Sport Soft
W17: D1 par: 1'33.631 (93.631s) - Gap: 1.406s (1.5%) - Tires: Racing Hard
W16: D1 par: 1'39.176 (99.176s) - Gap: 1.186s (1.2%) - Tires: Comfort Soft
W15: D1 par: 1'18.225 (78.225s) - Gap: 0.846s (1.1%) - Tires: Sport Soft
(reservations for fat fingers when punching numbers on my phone)

Now this is not a perfect study, but from just looking at the last 5 weeks it seems to clearly dispute the argument that soft tires make it "easier" for slower drivers to catch up. The largest divisional gap by far is in the last week with soft racing tires, and the second largest gap is on hard racing tires.

Thoughts?

The faster the car, the harder to reach the limit, I would assume.
But track length and total time, (%) are also factors.

Edit: Track difficulty also plays a factor.

 

[Seken]

I think it has more to do with the car then it does tires. To me, its much easier handling a front wheel drive 80 hp car compared to a bohemian rocket like we had this previous week... the slower the car, the better opportunity for the less skilled. I think its because the throttle and brake aren't near as important, its more about hitting your marks and being dead on... with a car that has more HP, then you have hit your marks of course, but braking and accelerating are the keys to making a good lap... just like this previous track, you could really screw up the entry into a corner, but as long as you were on the gas and not sideways coming out you were still in good shape. just my opinion and I have no data to back that up.

This pretty much hit it dead on.

 

[pk_090]

now i havent competed in the wrs in nearly 19 weeks now since supra man event #2 if i recall correctly. This is not a dig at anybody, but i personally hate sports tires, who goes out racing on a race track with sports tires? every car i buy regardless i buy race tires for purely for the fact i am racing and the tire should warrant this. I have no interest driving a car on the limit of the tire, the car should be driven to the limit itself, and quite often i feel that the tire selection is letting it down. Now i know that asking everybody to buy racing tires everyweek at 30ish k credits per time could be cheeky but with the seasonal events and such providing ample money i really don't think this is a problem. I have had so many fun races racing slower cars (fiat 500 and toyota aw11's etc all stock apart from RS's) and its awesome good fun!

 

[CSLACR]

now i havent competed in the wrs in nearly 19 weeks now since supra man event #2 if i recall correctly. This is not a dig at anybody, but i personally hate sports tires, who goes out racing on a race track with sports tires? every car i buy regardless i buy race tires for purely for the fact i am racing and the tire should warrant this. I have no interest driving a car on the limit of the tire, the car should be driven to the limit itself, and quite often i feel that the tire selection is letting it down. Now i know that asking everybody to buy racing tires everyweek at 30ish k credits per time could be cheeky but with the seasonal events and such providing ample money i really don't think this is a problem. I have had so many fun races racing slower cars (fiat 500 and toyota aw11's etc all stock apart from RS's) and its awesome good fun!

No matter what you're driving you're driving to the limit of the tires.
You're example of driving Fiat 500's on RS tires takes all acceleration and braking finesse out of the equation.
Perhaps if you hone your braking and acceleration techniques, you'll enjoy lesser tires more.

And the point of driving different tires would be different regulations, people actually race in real life with tire restrictions, which sometimes mean sports soft, and others may even be comfort soft.
Also if you'd like to re-create what any factory car will perform you'll be needing much less than racing soft.

If you like racing on RS's only, you should have been here last week.

W19: D1 par: 1'08.900 (68.900s) - Gap: 1.648s (2.4%) - Tires: Racing Soft
W18: D1 par: 1'50.693 (110.693s) - Gap: 1.101s (1.0%) - Tires: Sport Soft
W17: D1 par: 1'33.631 (93.631s) - Gap: 1.406s (1.5%) - Tires: Racing Hard
W16: D1 par: 1'39.176 (99.176s) - Gap: 1.186s (1.2%) - Tires: Comfort Soft
W15: D1 par: 1'18.225 (78.225s) - Gap: 0.846s (1.1%) - Tires: Sport Soft

I notice the third fastest car has the least variance.

I think week 16 has a larger variance due to DHolland's incredible lap.

Slower cars always get harder tires, so I have to agree it's more to do with vehicle speed/characteristics.
FF weeks are always closer, 4wd weeks are closer to I believe. Even a fast 4wd is easier to control then a RWD that requires careful throttle application.

I say this primarily because the 727HP monster made almost double the gap of the tame-by-comparison 545HP NSX.