Supercars set for even wider rollout of lower tyre pressures

As reported in the past 24 hours, the regulated minimum for the Dunlop control tyres has been dropped from 17psi to 15psi for next weekend’s Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint and next month’s betr Darwin Triple Crown.

Edwards, Supercars’ General Manager of Motorsport, has now revealed that 15psi will also apply in July’s NTI Townsville 500, and left open the possibility for lower pressures at more events.

Consistent with Speedcafe’s earlier report, he outlined to the championship’s official website that, “We want the drivers to race harder for longer.”

“We hadn’t raced at Taupo before, so we don’t want to risk anything there,” explained Edwards.

“And the Grand Prix, we know that’s [Albert Park] a high load circuit.

“It was taken to the TWG [Gen3 Technical Working Group], effectively they all went off, they deliberated, they came back and we all agreed to drop two psi for Perth, Darwin and Townsville.

“It’s to try and improve the racing of the tyre, and try and overcome some of the overheating issues that we have.

“We’re going to review it after Perth, and gauge whether the drivers felt it was a good thing or not.

“But, the intention is that we’ll roll out the lower tyre pressure at more events once we’ve built some confidence.”

Now former Supercars driver Shane van Gisbergen had been particularly critical of the imperative to “baby” a Gen3 car rather than race hard as he would in a NASCAR.

Furthermore, overheating while following another car, and hence having a very limited window of opportunity to make a pass, has often been highlighted by any number of drivers as being an issue in Supercars.

The Gen3 vehicles, though, are lighter than those of Gen2 and hence the scope for running lower tyre pressures at least at some circuits.

That is unlikely to be the case at Mount Panorama, for example, given the frequency of high corner loads, although Supercars appears to have decided that the allocation will be changed from the soft compound to the hard for this year’s Bathurst 1000.