Bridgestone: Ferrari and McLaren traits complicate
August 10, 2008 by Negative Camber
Filed under Parc Fermé
Bridgestone’s director of motor sport, Hirohide Hamashima, has explained his thoughts on why the recent gains by McLaren and then subsequent gains by Ferrari over the last three races may have to do with the MP4-23 and F2008 characteristics and how they use tires.
It is believed that Ferrari suffer from understeer and McLaren have oversteer. The two conditions have different affects on the tires and may play a large role in the championship. Hamashima told Autosport:
“Basically the Ferrari has more of a tendency to understeer than the McLaren, The McLaren is a little bit oversteery. When the tyre has good grip, the car with the oversteer tendency will be quicker over a single lap than a neutral or understeering car.
“But when you think about racing conditions – especially with the temperatures we had at the Hungaroring – then an oversteering car will have heat generating at the rear much higher than the understeering car.
“Looking at Hungary and (Lewis) Hamilton’s car behaviour, after a few laps he struggled with oversteer – so he was making lots of counter-steering movements. On the other hand the Ferrari had a good balance after a few laps.
“That’s why the temperature is making a difference.”
so which is it? do McLaren oversteer and Ferrari understeer, or vice versa?
i feel like this article is presuming some knowledge about car setup that i am lacking. it would be nice if i could specify what that deficit is, but then i’d know it, so there would be no deficit.
My bad Don. I had it reversed. I made the changes. McLaren are oversterr and Ferrari are understeer.
Labeling a car as under or oversteering sounds strange to me. I thought it varies with the way you set it up, circuit, tarmac condition, temp, etc., etc. any help there?
I’m thinking he’s speaking from baseline performance on their tires. I think your correct Benalf, you can set the car up for either but F1 cars can have a proclivity to one or the other so I’ve read. Certainly not an expert here. Just guessing.
the over/under-steer conditions seem to be inline with what we’ve all seen the last few races…. now maybe Bridgestone can tell BMW they left all their speed in May….
Good point Beckett. I think his statements do bear some fruit as to the Ferrari’s performance specifically and to McLaren’s. I suspect the BMW has exposed a similar issue with Nick in quali but I am starting to think it is more than tires now that Robert is struggling as well. The onboards from Hungary of Roberts seemed to indicate oversteer.