Bridgestone Feature: Tyre Fitting
By Bridgestone Motorsport June 11 2007
As the sole supplier of tyres to all teams competing in the FIA Formula One World Championship, Bridgestone Motorsport delivers approximately 2,200 tyres to each of the 17 races on the 2007 race calendar. However, there’s rather more involved than merely supplying the tyres and collecting them when the race is over.
As the sole supplier of tyres to all teams competing in the FIA Formula One World Championship, Bridgestone Motorsport delivers approximately 2,200 tyres to each of the 17 races on the 2007 race calendar. However, there’s rather more involved than merely supplying the tyres and collecting them when the race is over.
It’s Bridgestone, not the teams, who fit the tyres to the rims. The rims are made by a variety of different suppliers and are brought to Bridgestone’s fitting area by the teams’ wheel men.
The tyres, once fitted to the rims, are inflated with dried air and then balanced, by Bridgestone, before being collected by the teams and then used – to good effect, out on track.
Performing all of these, and other tasks, is a dedicated team of approximately 19 men - and one lady - allocated to the roles which come under the remit of the tyre fitters.
“The tyre fitters, or as I prefer to call them, technicians, are very important people. But they don’t get enough praise for the job that they do as they are not in the spotlight,” says Bridgestone Motorsport Head of Track Engineering Operations, Kees van de Grint.
“Our technical centre can design the best tyres – which we believe we do – but if they are not properly fitted, balanced, placed within the tyre warmers at the correct temperature for the correct length of time and then inflated to the correct pressure, even the best tyres cannot help a driver win the race.”
Before any of these actions can take place however, the tyre fitting area needs to be set up with Bridgestone’s tyre fitting, inflating and balancing equipment. This typically happens on the Tuesday and Wednesday before the race weekend, with the wet and extreme wet weather tyres, as well as some of the dry Bridgestone Potenza F1 tyres, being fitted on the Wednesday.
Thursday is usually the biggest day for tyre fitting, with the teams having all their dry tyre allocation fitted on this day. Due to the high performance nature of the tyres and rims the fitting process is critical.
“There is a big variation between the different types of rims,” explains van de Grint. “You have to understand that a rim is not merely a rim in Formula One, it is part of the car and acts, for example, as a device to improve brake cooling and aerodynamics.
“There is always a little bit of conflict between the car designer, aerodynamicists and the tyre men. We need a certain shape to be able to fit the tyre, but the car designer wants the optimum shape and the thinnest possible rim so that he can fit the largest brakes within the regulations. There is quite a difference between the rims and consequently some are easier to fit than others.”
After the tyres have been fitted to the rims and inflated with dried air, the combination is then balanced.
“Balancing is very important,” says van de Grint. “As you can imagine with the speeds that Formula One cars achieve of over 300 kph, if a tyre is out of balance you get a huge vibration. That vibration makes it very hard for the driver to concentrate and his vision will be reduced. In the worst case the driver will need to make a pit stop and in this competitive sport that would mean losing the race.”
After the tyres have been fitted, inflated and balanced, the teams collect them to be put on the cars where they fulfil their essential role. After all, the tyres are the only thing between the car and the track surface and are often placed under very high loads.
The tyres, once fitted to the rims, are inflated with dried air and then balanced, by Bridgestone, before being collected by the teams and then used – to good effect, out on track.
Performing all of these, and other tasks, is a dedicated team of approximately 19 men - and one lady - allocated to the roles which come under the remit of the tyre fitters.
“The tyre fitters, or as I prefer to call them, technicians, are very important people. But they don’t get enough praise for the job that they do as they are not in the spotlight,” says Bridgestone Motorsport Head of Track Engineering Operations, Kees van de Grint.
“Our technical centre can design the best tyres – which we believe we do – but if they are not properly fitted, balanced, placed within the tyre warmers at the correct temperature for the correct length of time and then inflated to the correct pressure, even the best tyres cannot help a driver win the race.”
Before any of these actions can take place however, the tyre fitting area needs to be set up with Bridgestone’s tyre fitting, inflating and balancing equipment. This typically happens on the Tuesday and Wednesday before the race weekend, with the wet and extreme wet weather tyres, as well as some of the dry Bridgestone Potenza F1 tyres, being fitted on the Wednesday.
Thursday is usually the biggest day for tyre fitting, with the teams having all their dry tyre allocation fitted on this day. Due to the high performance nature of the tyres and rims the fitting process is critical.
“There is a big variation between the different types of rims,” explains van de Grint. “You have to understand that a rim is not merely a rim in Formula One, it is part of the car and acts, for example, as a device to improve brake cooling and aerodynamics.
“There is always a little bit of conflict between the car designer, aerodynamicists and the tyre men. We need a certain shape to be able to fit the tyre, but the car designer wants the optimum shape and the thinnest possible rim so that he can fit the largest brakes within the regulations. There is quite a difference between the rims and consequently some are easier to fit than others.”
After the tyres have been fitted to the rims and inflated with dried air, the combination is then balanced.
“Balancing is very important,” says van de Grint. “As you can imagine with the speeds that Formula One cars achieve of over 300 kph, if a tyre is out of balance you get a huge vibration. That vibration makes it very hard for the driver to concentrate and his vision will be reduced. In the worst case the driver will need to make a pit stop and in this competitive sport that would mean losing the race.”
After the tyres have been fitted, inflated and balanced, the teams collect them to be put on the cars where they fulfil their essential role. After all, the tyres are the only thing between the car and the track surface and are often placed under very high loads.
As the cars go out on circuit, the technicians move from the Bridgestone fitting area to the teams’ garages. Vital tyre temperature information is collected during the session as well as sample scrapings from the tyres after running. At a race meeting where there are GP2 Series races the technicians then join their GP2 colleagues to fulfil a similar role for the teams there.
A new task for the technicians in 2007 has been adding the white stripe to the tyres. The softer of the two Bridgestone Potenza compounds is marked with a white line along the bottom of the second from inside groove. This was necessitated by a late change to the Sporting Regulations but refinement has already taken place.
The first tyre marking pens which were used were not wide enough to mark the tyres with one revolution, but the latest pens are double the width and only require a single turn of the wheel for the mark to be made, but it’s still another job to add to the technicians’ busy days.
After all the fitting, inflating, balancing, white line marking and temperature taking, the race is over and it’s time to pack up and head off.
“When the race is finished the technicians have to strip the tyres,” explains van de Grint. “The technicians work long, hard days and their weekend is certainly not over when the chequered flag is waved.
“After stripping the tyres the trucks or containers have to be loaded and then driven to their next destination. Any used tyres will be sent back to Bridgestone’s UK headquarters in Langley, near Heathrow. The equipment will also return to Langley unless time constraints mean it has to go straight on to the next venue, where a fresh delivery of tyres will be waiting for them.
“It’s not long before they are at the next test or at the next race. They put up the awning, set up all the equipment and make everything ready for the engineers to sit comfortably in their offices. They will then ensure the tyres are fitted, inflated, balanced and monitored to Formula One and Bridgestone’s exact standards. They are our unsung heroes.”
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