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Super soft tyre to be tested

20 Jul 2015
The V8 Supercars technical department will assess revised tyre compounds, with a super soft to be tested in the coming months.
3 mins by James Pavey
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V8 Supercars will test three new tyre compounds over the next two months, with a 'super soft' option on the cards for introduction in 2016.

The category currently runs both soft and hard compound tyres, manufactured by Dunlop, which produce different speed and degradation rates, which spices up the racing.

The soft tyre - first introduced in 2009 - has been a popular addition to V8 Supercars racing, the drivers loving the increased grip and the teams working hard to push the tyre to its limits while maximising its life.

A super soft option has been widely suggested to further heat up the competition, and together with Dunlop the V8 Supercars technical team will assess whether it could be integrated into next year's formats, which are still being determined.

V8 Supercars sporting and technical director David Stuart confirmed the test - which will also analyse two variations of the current soft tyre - would take place in the next two months, though where, when and with which team was still being determined.

"The plan is to test a couple of different compounds of tyre and then report back to the Commission on the performance of those tyres," Stuart told v8supercars.com.au.

"So we will do a qualifying run, a race run on them and evaluate the speed and the degradation of the tyre and report that back to the Commission.

"That, I guess, will all be taken into the mix of what happens as far as a tyre.

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"I can't really say anything about change of race formats ... but I imagine they would take the tyres into consideration for what they want to do."

Stuart and the technical team will look at a number of performance indicators across the test as they analyse the three various compounds.

"What we'll be looking at is the behaviour and the performance characteristics of the tyre. And that'll be tied into the ultimate one lap qualifying pace of the tyre, and then how the tyre performs over a simulated race run. We'll have to look at what the average run the tyres have been [doing], pick a number there and run thorough X amounts of laps consecutively and look at the tyre performance and degradation and how the tyre holds up."

"There are a couple of different compounds that are coming from Japan which are variants of the soft tyre compound of the current soft tyre," he added.

Stuart believed there had not been a change in the makeup of the tyre compounds since the softs were introduced for the 2009 V8 Supercars season, however with the switch to the 'car of the future' specification racer, there has been the change from 17 to 18 inch tyres.

The possibility of implementing a super soft tyre has been on the checklist for some time now.

A number of drivers have been outspoken about a move to a softer compound after the number of soft tyres used across a SuperSprint weekend were increased to improve Saturday racing this year.

More details about the test will emerge in the coming weeks.

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