06/06/2015
NEWS STORY
Paddy Lowe admits that F1 is unlikely to switch from 13-inch to 18-inch wheels.
Having tried 18-inch wheels on a Lotus during last year's post-British GP test at Silverstone, Pirelli recently tried them again, this time on a GP2 car at Monaco with Martin Brundle at the wheel.
However, despite Michelin's claim that it will only return to F1 if the 18-inch wheel format is adopted, it is not thought the sport will make the switch.
"The subject of bigger wheels has been raised over the last five or eight years," Lowe told reporters in Monaco. "I think the broad consensus is that going to bigger wheels is not a good direction. Certainly from a grip point of view it's not positive. Like for like, such tyres will have a lower grip and the weight will go up considerably so it's not an attractive direction performance-wise, so I think generally we would intend to stick with the 13 inch wheels."
"As Paddy said, the rim diameter is going to stay where it is but the width of the tyre is probably still up for grabs," added Ferrari's James Allison. "We're discussing what that ought to be along with all the other aspects of the rules for around about that time. I would say that sooner the better would be good for things like that.
"Tyres are maybe the most complicated bit of the car and the bit of the car that we have the least data about because we're not allowed, by regulation, to test them, either on the track or off the track, so we have the data provided by the tyre manufacturer but that's all and you want that information good and early when you're designing a car, not just for the vehicle dynamics part of the car but also tyres are one of the biggest aerodynamic components on the car and so having in your wind tunnel tyres of the appropriate shape, size and squashiness is a big deal."