Peugeot’s Paul Di Resta told reporters at a team media briefing in the week preceding the 24 Hours of Le Mans that the lack of tyre warmers in FIA World Endurance Championship competition, and in particular for Le Mans, which takes place this weekend, has brought a great deal of uncertainty to the race.
“[It brings] massive uncertainty,” said the Scot.
“This tyre is clearly not developed to be a tyre that should be started from cold. It was developed from a tyre that should have been heated. I understand removing tyre warmers and what they want to achieve, but at the same time, the speeds arriving at T1 versus a tyre starting from cold, the unpredictability and how big these cars are — it’s quite hard.”
Di Resta races the #94 Peugeot 9X8 alongside Loic Duval and Stoffel Vandoorne. The French squad has recently introduced a new car, which added a rear wing and different size tyres to the ‘old’ wingless 9X8.
“I would have liked a bit more development, in the sense of making sure you had a tyre that you felt in control of,” di Resta continued.
“I don’t think any driver would say the ever feel in control when the tyre is cold in a Hypercar, because the rubber just takes time to switch on and that’s generally with heat.”
However, at Le Mans, getting heat into the tyres is hard when you come out of the pits on new cold tyres, as di Resta explained.
“The biggest thing is you need is speed, and you don’t get the speed in sector one here.
“When you come out the pits, that’s the bit that’s going to be hard. You need speed quickly. There’s no possibility to even get speed because you’re not in a straight line, anywhere, you’re constantly turning. Even when you get on the Mulsanne, I’m not so sure you you want to pin it because it’s that uncertain.”
How fast it takes to get the tyres up to temperature depends on two external factors: temperature and compound. As such, this could influence what tyres the teams run at in cooler conditions, which then affects strategy throughout the race.
“It depends on the temperature,” said the 38-year-old.
“Depends on what compound you’re on as well. You’re kind of forced into certain compounds depending on the temperature, and it’s not like you can take the easier compound because then that overheats.”
The Scot, who was raised in Uphall, 14 miles from Edinburgh, believes WEC were too hasty in removing tyre warmers.
“Personally, I don’t think it was ready for it. The tyre’s not up to speed yet.
Until you can go out there and confidently say you don’t feel kind of unsafe because it is very unpredictable.
“I can tell you, from experience in winter testing, it can be quite awful during the night and during the mornings, just to feel like you’re in control of the car, because you don’t have that.”
Di Resta’s final point of the conversation around tyre warmers was the almost hypocritical regulations.
“These cars are heavy now. When they go, they go, and they’ve not got a lot of downforce either. One thing that kickstarts a tyre is downforce, but the regulation doesn’t have downforce — but it’s heavy.”
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