New NASCAR, F1 designs delayed due to COVID-19

AKRON—The continuing fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic has delayed the debut of a pair of much-anticipated technical changes in the racing world—the rollout of 18-inch radial racing tires in both NASCAR and Formula 1—until 2022.

Both Goodyear and Pirelli & Cie. S.p.A., the designated sole tire suppliers for the two racing series, respectively, continued to work on these next-generation developments throughout 2020 and are gearing up to complete the tasks by mid-2021 ahead of their expected competitive debut in 2022.

In Goodyear's case, the debut of the 18-inch racing radial for NASCAR is linked with the launch of NASCAR's "NextGen" car platform, which essentially is a uniform chassis and body specification powered separately by engines from the sport's three auto partners—Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Toyota Motor Corp.

Goodyear and NASCAR decided to adopt that larger rim-diameter-sized tires in August 2019. The current 15-inch formula has been used since the mid-1960s.

The change is designed to help make cars on the race track resemble more closely their street counterparts, nearly all of which are now fitted OE with larger-diameter tires, Greg Stucker, director of racing for Goodyear, said at that time.

The body styles used in NASCAR are the Ford Mustang, Chevy Camaro and Toyota Camry.

While the competition debut has been delayed, NASCAR and a handful of the sport's teams tested the Gen-7 platform a number of times in 2020, most recently in mid-December at Daytona International Speedway, and will expand the testing throughout 2021.

NASCAR officials had indicated that one of the top goals of the NextGen vehicle's first superspeedway test was establishing a baseline speed in single-car runs, finding the proper balance of horsepower and drag.

In developing the new tire, Stucker said Goodyear tapped into knowledge about lower-profile tires from the company's road-racing development team to accelerate the learning curve.

Even with that knowledge, though, Stucker said no one prior to this had experience with low-profile tires on the steeply banked turns typical of NASCAR superspeedways.

Thus far, Goodyear has been pleased with the new tire's performance, Stucker said, which reflects well on the development team's ability to translate the theoretical design elements into the prototype tires used in the testing.

The move to the larger rim-diameter tire also means the debut of a new wheel design, an aluminum spoked design that attaches to the axle via a single lug nut. This is a change from the 15-inch steel rims that use five lug nuts.

John Probst, NASCAR senior vice president of innovation and racing development, said the move to the larger tires and wheels was part of an overall goal to provide more relevance and a stronger correlation to today's production cars, while acknowledging that a strong enough fastener that could hold up under high-speed conditions was a necessity.

BBS of America is supplying the new wheels.

The 18-inch tires used at oval tracks of 1-mile length and greater will be equipped with a form of run-flat protection, Stucker said.

It will differ from the separate safety inner liner Goodyear has employed since the mid-1960s, but he declined to go into detail how it will work.

Pirelli's plans

As for Pirelli's plans for an 18-inch tire for Formula 1, the Italian company is facing a similar development curve.

The design specs for the cars for the 2022 season and beyond call for some fundamental changes that will have an influence on tire performance.

As such, Pirelli's engineers face months of theoretical design work before being able to see their tire prototypes in action on an actual 2022-spec car.

Pirelli has yet to release a testing schedule for the 18-inch tire, which is replacing the 13-inch spec that's been in place for decades.

The company does have a platform for testing the basic concept, however, in that the FIA's Formula 2 class—single-seat, open-wheel racers one step below F1—started using 18-inch race tires last year.

After their debut last season, Mario Isola, head of car racing at Pirelli, said:

"Although we won't see any 18-inch Formula 1 tires testing on track until next year, what we've already seen in Formula 2 is a very encouraging sign for the future.

"The compound steps are similar to last year and the cars are exactly the same, which means that all these comparisons between 13-inch and 18-inch tires are entirely valid.

"The new-generation 2022 F1 cars will be heavier with different aerodynamics, which should bring overall lap times down a bit, but we can expect more consistency, less overheating and an even better show—which our new tires will play an integral role in helping to provide."

The FIA and F1 teams agreed in 2018 to adopt the 18-inch tire spec.

Pirelli, Formula 1's designated race tire supplier since 2010, first proposed moving to 18-inch tires in 2014, saying at that time it would lead to increased technology transfer between Formula 1 racing and road-going tires.

Delaying the debut of the 18-inch tire until 2022 also puts Pirelli under pressure to continue developing the 2020-spec 13-inch tire for the 2021 season, which is set to debut the weekend of March 26-28 in Bahrain after the traditional season-opener in Australia was postponed until later in the season due to ongoing COVID-19 pandemic concerns there.