|
Also it has to be remembered that until this year (?), Michelin did have a virtual monopoly on LMP1, and on LMH's early 2021-22 incarnation. However, even back then (early LMH), and certainly in LMP1, each team had confidential tires to a degree. Even with the "spec" tires in LMH, the tires were made in two specs, hybrid and non-hybrid. Now, there's basically one spec, and that seems to favor the hybrid equipped LMH/LMDH cars.
One thing that I think has helped Toyota cope to a large degree is that they've been doing this for year, and the drivers that have come from IMSA or have a lot of IMSA experience have also adapted better. I think that most of Ferrari's drivers were taken from their pool of GTE/GT3 GT drivers, series that I believe previous used a form of tire warming.
However, I don't buy the tire warming deal entirely. If they did like how they did it back about 15 years ago (put the tires into ovens that ran to 150-160 degrees F), if it was cold especially, in the time it took to get the tires from the oven, to the pit area to the being bolted to the car, I'd suspect that the tires may've cooled significantly.
We didn't really see these issues, at least big time, at Sebring or Algarve because of the weather as far as ambient temp (and hence track temp ranges) were fairly easy to guess. Spa, with the traditional spring Ardennes weather, is a crap shoot. It even snowed at Spa at least once in recent years. So one can maybe forgive Michelin and Goodyear, even if they were going conservative, for getting it wrong.
Granted, Le Mans is a bit of a crap shoot. Though most races in recent years were in the 70's during the day, there were years like in 2000 and 2005 where it was in the 90's with temps in the front engine GT cars getting as high as 150-160 degrees at times, and every time it rains it tends to drop into the 60s max during the day.
|