All-weather tyres?

[BSchneiderFan]

According to Autosport, Michelin are considering developing an all-weather tyre for the WEC. This just seems a bit of a retrograde step to me. Thoughts?

[Akrapovic]

Would completely remove the strategy aspect and destroy a big part of the series. All weather tyres are only useful for series which don't need (or want) pit stops, or can't support them. It may be useful for BTCC (some of the pit lanes are too small to service the whole grid), and it's useful for low end single seaters and Formula E, where there are no proper pit crews. But not for sportscar and endurance racing.

[BSchneiderFan]

There is an argument that grooved tyres on 18-inch rims, Ã* la Formula E, save a lot of rubber. But I’m still not convinced.

[chernaudi]

Michelin already have a slick intermediate tire that's basically a soft slick compound on intermediate tire sidewalls. But it's probably useless in anything but light rain.

I do see this as retrograde and unless others jump ship to running treaded dry tires, I don't see this as anything that would happen, even if it's production relevant.

[BSchneiderFan]

Link to full article: https://www.autosport.com/fe/news/13...sks-like-fewec

[broadrun96]

So Michelin wants to play and make better more efficient in every way tires? Yes, it's not exciting for 'regular fans' but for the engineers it has to be as exciting as a new engine or aero part. And I'm guessing they aren't looking to slow the cars at all with new tires. Use less rubber, increase lap count per tire, decrease fuel consumption all sound like Michelin's goals in racing and making an all weather racing tire can be part of that idea. And more than a few times they have talked about limiting the number of tires shipped for each race meeting as part of their overall reduction in costs and consumption.

[Ospi]

I don't like it for endurance racing because it removes a big aspect of strategy and it becomes a compromise in performance since it'll be slower and make the cars feel more sloppy in the dry and it won't handle heavy rain conditions as well as the current wets which could limit wet weather racing further (on safety grounds). On the positive it'll save money, but that's not going to mean much to the viewers.

[bentley speed 8]

I think that would slow down the cars, as the tires would then need to be designed for a variety of situations and amount of water on track. Of course I wouldn't like it either for the same reasons others have mentioned.

Still, would they handle a wet track better than the Continentals?

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by bentley speed 8

I think that would slow down the cars, as the tires would then need to be designed for a variety of situations and amount of water on track. Of course I wouldn't like it either for the same reasons others have mentioned.

Still, would they handle a wet track better than the Continentals?

I think the current slicks have a wet track better than Continentals do. But one more year and Michelins will be on and the Contis tossed I the bin.