On Friday, four Supercars drivers from four different teams took to Sydney Motorsport Park after practice to sample the new Dunlop rubber.
Those drivers were Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters, Grove Racing’s Richie Stanaway, Andre Heimgartner of Brad Jones Racing, and Erebus Motorsport driver Jack Le Brocq.
Brodie Kostecki was in line to test the new tyre compound until his car suffered an upright issue.
Speedcafe spoke with Waters who said the new tyre was noticeably faster and a better overall. However, he was cautious to pass judgement given the brevity of the shakedown.
The test comes with a caveat that there was very little nose-to-tail running where drivers have complained the most about overheating.
Still, they were able to simulate overheating the tyre pushing it to its limits.
Thermal sensitivity has been a big talking point and the new tyre, it would seem, can run at a higher temperature and be less susceptible to falling off the cliff.
The Sydney test was particularly important given it induces the most tyre degradation of any circuit in Australia.
Speaking after the 30-minute test, Supercars head of motorsport Tim Edwards said he had only spoken to two of the four drivers but received positive feedback.
Until he received feedback from all four, he said he would reserve judgement. However, the early signs are positive.
“At the moment, it still looks like a positive step looking at the lap times and with the initial comments we got,” said Edwards.
“We’ll analyse the information we got from today, get the rest of the driver’s comments, and then we’ve got another test planned coming up soon to evaluate it further.”
Fundamentally, the goal with the new Dunlop compound is to allow drivers to push for extended periods.
As noted by Jaxon Evans in a recent Speedcafe interview, drivers tend to hold back their full potential due to the tyre’s limitations.
Interestingly, Edwards said heightened heart rates and comments from the drivers showed they were having to hustle harder than usual.
That in itself told Supercars and Dunlop that the tyre was working as intended.
“The biggest telltale we got out of the Queensland test… Nick Percat’s heart rate when he did a 25-lap run on the super soft tyre was 150 [beats per minute]. His heart rate when he did the same length run on the development tyre was 190 [bpm],” Edwards revealed.
“So that tells you that they’re working harder, and Richie (Stanway) said exactly that. He said he did a race run during the 90 minute practice session and didn’t feel anything. He just hopped out after that and said he felt a bit sore because it’s working him harder.
“You can drive the tyre harder, which on the surface would be a positive because if they can all get close to the threshold driving rather than potentially backing it off a little bit because you’ve got to manage the tyre, people are more likely to make mistakes and be able to challenge each other.”
Early indications are that the new tyre is a second faster than the compound Supercars currently uses at Sydney Motorsport Park.
However, he said lap times are irrelevant. Ultimately, the big question is “can you rag it?” according to Edwards.
“We want the drivers to be able to race harder on the tyre,” he explained.
“At the moment we all know that you follow behind a car in front for a couple of laps and then you always hear drivers talking about ‘I had to back off because my tyres overheated’ and the guy you’re trying to overtake knows he’s only got to hold you off for a couple of laps because he knows your tyres will go off.”
Edwards said the next-generation tyre isn’t necessarily the final product Supercars will settle on. He wouldn’t rule out another compound being constructed based on their findings from the tests to date. However, he said there will come a deadline when Supercars has to commit to putting in an order for the 2025 season.
“Maybe this gets us close to where we want to be, but it still needs tweaking a little bit. I don’t know. That’s all part of what we’re trying to do here,” said Edwards.
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