Tyre doping in US motorsport
Discussion
I don't know if this is old hat or not but I ran a quick/dirty web search and forum search and not much came up on PH besides anecdotal evidence of people coming to grief on track days.
Anyway it seems some boffins in the states have developed a technique to determine whether or not a tyre has been treated with softening compound. Obviously this is banned practice but the sellers of such compounds claim they're 'undetectable'. Strong parallels with the rest of the sporting world and the numerous doping stories of late.
Perhaps I'm behind the times and this is well known, but it has escaped my attention until now and I've only uncovered it reading a niche scientific publication.
Question 1 - how widespread is this practice?
Question 2 - any scope/evidence for it to affect F1? Never heard of it going on, yet once you scratch the surface, there's often more to be found.
Mind you, it doesn't seem as if there's any problem softening the Pirellis....
Original research Kranz et al, Anal. Methods, 2016 (http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2016/ay/c5ay02657a#!divAbstract)
Anyway it seems some boffins in the states have developed a technique to determine whether or not a tyre has been treated with softening compound. Obviously this is banned practice but the sellers of such compounds claim they're 'undetectable'. Strong parallels with the rest of the sporting world and the numerous doping stories of late.
Perhaps I'm behind the times and this is well known, but it has escaped my attention until now and I've only uncovered it reading a niche scientific publication.
Question 1 - how widespread is this practice?
Question 2 - any scope/evidence for it to affect F1? Never heard of it going on, yet once you scratch the surface, there's often more to be found.
Mind you, it doesn't seem as if there's any problem softening the Pirellis....
Original research Kranz et al, Anal. Methods, 2016 (http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2016/ay/c5ay02657a#!divAbstract)
Tyre softener has been around for ages and the means to detect it have been around for ages too. I can't comment on the US but in karting we have a tyre sniffer that can detect whether tyres have been doped or not...unsure on how it works though I'm guessing it looks out for certain chemicals in known softeners
As chevy says tyre softener has been around for decades in the UK and abroad.
I follow short oval racing in the UK and there have been issues with it for years, it was initially used to try and increase the life of old tyres in the F2 category, but then, as usual various versions were available on the side and illegally and tyres were being buffed, dunked in tanks of the stuff for big races, and being dunked numerous times to make them softer and softer.
You can use a thing like a breathalyser sort of to check and people still get caught out now and then, but the initial reasons of extending older tyres life was a great idea.
Sadly as we all know someone always takes the mick
I follow short oval racing in the UK and there have been issues with it for years, it was initially used to try and increase the life of old tyres in the F2 category, but then, as usual various versions were available on the side and illegally and tyres were being buffed, dunked in tanks of the stuff for big races, and being dunked numerous times to make them softer and softer.
You can use a thing like a breathalyser sort of to check and people still get caught out now and then, but the initial reasons of extending older tyres life was a great idea.
Sadly as we all know someone always takes the mick
tapkaJohnD said:
Illegal as per race series regulations i presume, not criminal law.
Vaud said:
As an aside - can you share any good stories of innovative tricks that competitors have tried?
The ones that involved me and what I have actually seen.Normal stuff
The usual oversize engines
One scrute had every car in parc ferme take the head of- out of 20+ cars, Only 6 were in the published capacity limits.
A D-type with a 4.7 litre engine.
Loads for failing ride height/underweight, wings too big etc…
Rose joints instead of polyurethane bushes.
Clever stuff
Engine ECU using the in camera SD card for “data transfer purposes”... not fully understood why, but they were told in no uncertain terms not to do it again. And they didn't.
Laptops used to control noise levels via Wi-Fi.
Detachable (via Velcro/duct tape) gurney flaps.
Separate fuel tanks and lines, for hiding loopy juice fuel.
Carefully created “defects” in turbo boost actuation hoses.
Hidden wires for data loggers.
Ship to shore radio set up –when banned in the championship.
Stupid stuff
Showing a pair of overalls in the bag which didn’t have anything below chest height? WHY?
Widely Suspected
High octane fuel.
ECU fiddling - VERY widely suspected.
Anyway – lunchtime is over - or I could fill page after page with this stuff. In some cases, cheating was only found out when a fatality was involved….
indigorallye said:
Why is it not permitted?
Is there a safety issue?
Because getting more usable life out of your tyres means the tyre manufacturers cant sell as many tyres... the only people I know use it use it to keep old tyres soft enough to use. I dont know anyone who would put it on a brand new set of slicks as they would then be too soft..Is there a safety issue?
bucksmanuk said:
As a scrutineer….
Are we aware of it? Yes
Are more advanced checks coming to confirm it? – Yes
How do we know who’s using it? The best policemen are the fellow competitors.
It's a pain in the arse though, we suspected one team of being at it for a while (indeed they have been fairly notorious in other series for various methods of dodginess), had it confirmed by loudmouth mechanics after a few beers, organisers and tyre suppliers basically said 'we can't prove it'.Are we aware of it? Yes
Are more advanced checks coming to confirm it? – Yes
How do we know who’s using it? The best policemen are the fellow competitors.
A black and white way of detecting it would be very welcome in my series.
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