Hoosier has announced that there will be a new, smaller outside diameter 10 inch tire available this summer. 16 inches outside diameter, 6 and 7.5 inches wide, available in LC0 and R25B compounds. Do we expect to see any teams already running these in Michigan or Lincoln this year? I know Texas A&M is on them already (which is not the biggest change they have made this year), as I'm pretty sure they have been testing them for the last year. How many teams do you think will be switching to them for next season? The TTC will probably be testing them in August, which makes an interesting timeline for North American teams who are considering them. It is a pretty big change, as I image it will be difficult to design a chassis/suspension that will be able to test both an 18 inch and a 16 inch diameter tire due to the size difference.
Aside from waiting for the tire data, does anyone have any qualitative predictions on how they will behave? Although I don't understand a ton about tires (does anybody?), I would expect that the slimmer sidewall will make them a lot stiffer, whereas the current 18 inch diameter sidewalls seem to roll/thrust over a lot during cornering. I would image this might make them react a lot quicker to steering inputs? What does the smaller sidewall mean for overall levels of grip?
With all the talk of how inactive the forums have been, just wanted to get some good discussion going here!