Does It Even Matter? | Concrete vs Asphalt Race Tracks
Summary
00:00 | - Does running on concrete, is it different from asphalt for alignment? Not necessarily, so we're talking about different track surfaces as far as concrete versus asphalt. |
00:10 | Definitely the grip level will change so obviously that has a flow on effect to changing how you're doing your alignment and your setup properties. |
00:17 | To some extent it is normal when you're running on a different surface that you can have the balance shift. |
00:22 | So what I mean by that is you may well have a slight understeer balance on an asphalt surface, then you move to a concrete surface and just because of the different way the tyre works in that different surface, it may well mean that one tyre ends up working on the other, ends up working slightly differently to the other at one end of that car so you might have an understeer on asphalt and a slight oversteer on concrete. |
00:41 | That's certainly not unusual, so in that case you can definitely use different alignment settings to try and fix any balance problems that you have. |
00:47 | It's not necessarily that moving from one surface to another, you'll definitely get a balance or grip change for that matter, it really depends a lot on the conditions, the surface, the exact makeup of the aggregate, everything that's made up of the surface, obviously also depending on how tolerant your tyres are to dealing with different surfaces as well. |
01:03 | Certainly some racetracks like a great example of that is Sebring is a racetrack that's made up largely of huge concrete panels, it's an old runway. |
01:10 | Compared to a conventional racetrack which is usually made up of a special bitument asphalt, you definitely end up with a balance shift running at a conventional racetrack to running somewhere like Sebring. |
01:20 | That's an example where you definitely end up having different alignment settings but sort of at a base level I wouldn't necessarily have, there's not sort of a fixed alignment change that you go from one surface to another, it really depends on your specific car, your specific tyre and the specific track as well but absolutely it's something that you might need to look at. |
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