Like said, if it gets hotter, the rubber will be stickier, thus more grip, but also more friction. Maybe when it is hotter, cars will mainly have a disadvantage of being slower on straights (because of friction), more then the advantage of being able to go quicker through the corners because of more grip. Besides, I work at an indoor kart track, and the quickest lap times here are usually driven in the winter. We experience that there is less grip, especially the first few laps when the tyres are also cold, but the engine performance increases. We really notice that the acceleration increases compared to summer.
I would probably nail that down to the fact that hire karts, 4 strokes in particular, are super, super sensetive to smoothness. You might make 1 tenth up by taking a corner well, but you will make 5 tenths up by getting a good exit onto the next straight, primarilly because 4 strokes are so slow at accelerating. At an indoor track, I can't see how the track temp would get affected too much anyway, but if the track was especially hot, there could be too much grip and the karts engines are getting bogged down on corner exit. Faster times on a cooler track is not something I would ever expect to see in general.
The hotter the track in oval racing the slicker it is. Like LesiU says it's because of the different compounds. The track is slower when it's too hot because they have less grip in the turns. There are MANY variables though but generally speaking a cooler track in NASCAR is going to be faster. Road racing and oval are apples and oranges!
And lets not forget that cooler air has a higher density, and hence more oxygen, giving more power. It's all a huge jumble where everything affects everything. EDIT: And since people are talking about the difference the different tyre compounds make, hopefully there will be a way to simulate that in rF2.
Same thing at both extremes. I was giving an example. On a hot track and a very cold track the rubber cannot work as well as inbetween those extremes.
Depends on the extremes. There's a reason why there's never winter testing in the upper states in the U.S.
Well there is Baudette MN. I live 150 KMs north and Americans think Baudette is cold!! lol. There is testing in nothern U.S just not race car testing. lol.
Of course not mate, i'm Portuguese!! How do you expect me to write English? Like a pro? What matters is that you understand and... after all it wasn't that bad right?
There's a lot of misinformation in some opinions expressed. I'm an engineer with previous experience in motor-racing and tyres in particular. I'm not talking about simulators but real-life. The example of optimum 25C track temp and saying that 20C (colder relatively) to 30C (hotter relatively) will have more grip is incorrect. There are thousands of variables to be considered and such a generalisation is not only wrong, but has no logical basis behind it. There is an optimal track temperature window for a particular 'configuration' - the configuration is dependant on things like circuit, tarmac-type, 'environment' (ambient temp, humidity, etc), tyre compound, car set-up, and thousands of other variables of which driving style is a very important one. Outside of the optimal track temperature window there is inherent less grip which generally increases the greater the temperature difference from the optimal in a non-linear relationship.
The best recent high profile real-life example of a driver/car suffering from non-optimal tyre temperature was probably Jenson Button in 2009 in some races in the back half of the season. From being totally dominant to left floundering quite a bit off the pace, even to his team-mate in an identical car.
Yes you're right Mr. Engineer and i know what you mean, but supposing we're talking about same circuit, tarmac-type, temp and humidity, tyre compound, car setup and THE SAME DRIVING STYLE, with 30ºC he will have more grip than with 20ºC for sure, it can be just 0.00.100 per lap but it makes difference.
It completely depends on the series and tire. But EITHER extreme (hot OR cold) will REDUCE grip if outside the optimal performance band of the tires, no matter what setup adjustments are made, tire blankets, anything. You cannot compete in an extreme weather condition. PLAYLIFE's last paragraph said it perfectly.
I wasn't talking in extremes, just a 5ºC range. A slightly hot track will create more grip, rubber, etcª than a colder track.
