The compounds
| Compound | Grip | Working temperature | Life at a steady pace |
|---|---|---|---|
| S Soft (red) | Highest (+6%) | 88–112 °C | ~45 km |
| M Medium (yellow) | Baseline | 92–116 °C | ~80 km |
| H Hard (white) | Lowest (−4.5%) | 98–122 °C | ~125 km |
What changes grip
- Temperature
- New tyres come out at 80 °C, below every compound's window, so your first lap on new tyres has less grip. Cold tyres can lose up to 18%. Driving hard warms them, sliding warms them fast, and long straights cool them down. Overheated tyres fade. Keep an eye on the colours in the bottom-right corner: blue is cold, green is good, red is too hot.
- Wear
- Grip drops gently at first, then falls off a cliff at about 72% worn. Watch the wear bars and pit before you reach the cliff. The engineer warns you when wear passes 75%, and by then you're already on the cliff.
- Corners
- The outside tyres carry more load, so they run hotter. A circuit with lots of long corners in one direction works one side of the car harder than the other.
Tyre life by circuit
This is roughly how many laps a set lasts before the cliff (about 72% of its life) at a steady pace. Pushing hard or sliding wears tyres faster.
| Circuit | Lap | S Soft | M Medium | H Hard | 8-lap race |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monaco | 3.26 km | ~10 laps | ~17 laps | ~27 laps | 26 km |
| Monza | 5.76 km | ~5 laps | ~10 laps | ~15 laps | 46 km |
| Silverstone | 5.82 km | ~5 laps | ~10 laps | ~15 laps | 47 km |
| Spa | 6.95 km | ~4 laps | ~8 laps | ~13 laps | 56 km |
| Suzuka | 5.77 km | ~5 laps | ~10 laps | ~15 laps | 46 km |
So in the default 8-lap race, Softs are a short first stint almost everywhere except Monaco. There, Softs could nearly go the whole distance, but you still have to fit a second compound.
Making a pit stop
The pit lane is on the right side of the start/finish straight at every circuit.
- Enter across the solid white line at the start of the pit lane.
- Slow down before the speed-limit line. At the line, the 80 km/h limiter takes over automatically. If you cross it more than 5 km/h too fast, you get +5 s in a race.
- Stop in your box: the yellow rectangle in front of the red garage. Stop with the car inside the box and almost stationary.
- Choose tyres with ←/→, or press 1 Soft, 2 Medium or 3 Hard. On a wheel or gamepad, flick the steering left or right.
- Confirm with Enter, Space, the throttle or the upshift paddle. If you don't confirm, the crew fits the highlighted compound after 6 seconds.
- The crew takes 2.2–3.0 seconds. Then you're released: drive down the lane (still limited to 80 km/h) and rejoin at the exit.
Watch the rejoin. You come out of the pit exit on fresh, cold tyres. Take the first few corners carefully, and look out for cars arriving at full speed.
What a stop costs
This is the time a stop costs compared with staying out:
| Circuit | Pit stop loss |
|---|---|
| Silverstone, Monaco | ~12 s |
| Suzuka, Spa | 14–15 s |
| Monza (the longest pit lane) | ~21 s |
A second stop is only worth it if fresh tyres gain you more than that over the rest of the race. Usually they don't, unless you've gone over the cliff.
Tyre tips
- Take it easy on the out lap. New tyres are cold and have less grip. Warm them with steady speed before you push.
- Sliding overheats tyres. If the temperatures go red, you're overdriving, and tidier lines are faster.
- Softs for one fast lap, Hards for a long run. In a hot lap, fit Softs for your fastest time.
- Plan in kilometres. 45 km of Softs is about four laps of Spa, or thirteen laps of Monaco.
- Pit before the cliff, not after it. A lap on tyres past the cliff can cost more than the stop itself.