Following a successful debut for its Medium-spec (yellow-labelled) LMGT3 Eagle F1 Supersports in Qatar to open the FIA WEC season, Goodyear is ready to debut its wet tyre as the European leg of the schedule begins in Imola and the ELMS season gets underway in Barcelona.
While the two slick specs were developed over a number of significant tests over the past 18 months, in partnership with a number of GT3 manufacturers, Goodyear’s approach to developing its 2024 LMGT3 wet tyre was significantly different.
The new LMGT3 wet tyre (featuring blue labels), unlike the slicks, is based on the wet tyres developed for Goodyear’s Nürburgring GT3 programme in the NLS and for the 24 Hours, rather than a pure evolution of its ELMS GTE product.
“What we have tried to do is take a lot of learnings from the Nürburgring programme,” Goodyear’s endurance programme manager Mike McGregor told DSC, “as opposed to the slicks where we said our Nürburgring effort wasn’t a relevant platform for us.
“I think the Nürburgring is the most competitive wet tyre arena out there, so we used that as the basis for our tyre.
“For our slicks, we’ve gone to a new mould profile, and we have had to reflect that into the wet development. So based on sim work and in-house development we produced new mould profiles to match the slick profile.
“We also took the construction concept of what we developed over the slick, with some tweaking and the inclusion of lessons learned at the ‘Ring.”
Sustainability is clearly a consideration too, as it drives to increase the percentage of environmentally friendly materials used in its racing range and decrease its carbon footprint on the logistical side.
Happily, Goodyear is meeting its targets in that area. Beyond its commitment to using sea freight where possible, the materials used in its wet tyres are more sustainable than its previous GT3 wets.
“We have increased the material within the compound that is sustainable,” said McGregor, “so the wet tyre hits the 33 per cent target of sustainable materials in the tyre.
“That’s with big steps forward with the compound itself, but still maintaining a good level of grip and consistency and performance in varied conditions. The new wet has to cover wet surfaces and a drying track, it is a very versatile product.”
To test its new concepts and the advances in compound technology, Goodyear primarily utilised its private test facilities in Mireval, France and Wittlich, Germany. These tests were used to evaluate their levels of grip and consistency in varied conditions.
“Wet testing for us is done a lot differently,” McGregor explained. “We do a lot of lab testing on the compound, then we do internal evaluation testing at our private facilities, we can water them to different levels.
“That’s much more accurate than doing large-scale Grand Prix (circuits) testing, but we’d done that for the Nürburgring wets before we started this development, so that information has been fed into them.”
The 2024 wets were finalised at the end of 2023 in early December, though until this month during a test at Spa, none of Goodyear’s customer teams had used them. The WEC Prologue and race weekend in Qatar was held in the sunshine and the majority of private testing proved to be dry too.
The test at Spa saw LMGT3 teams Manthey, Team WRT, Vista AF Corse and United Autosports get their first taste of the wets, and the early feedback has been positive.
“We’ve seen improvements in grip over our previous reference, more consistency and the overall pattern performance,” McGregor said.
When will we see the wet used for the first time? Clearly, it will all depend on the weather. According to Goodyear, over the past decade in motorsport, only 12-15 per cent of its overall race tyre consumption has been with wets.
Nevertheless, Goodyear believes it will need to be called into action before the end of the WEC season.
“We have to be prepared for all eventualities, but we know from historical data where we need to take the biggest allocations of wets. Spa you expect mixed conditions, same with Le Mans.
“Sao Paulo is at a time of year where it is more their winter season, with a greater chance there, then Fuji is another one where it can spring a surprise. So we expect you’ll see wet running this season in the WEC.”
The other tyre compound that Goodyear will debut later this year in LMGT3 competition is the red-labelled “Medium Plus”.
Currently, in LMGT3, Goodyear nominates which slick spec it will take to each race meeting ahead of time. The expectation is that the yellow Medium will be the “go-to” for the majority of the ELMS season and the early portion of the FIA WEC.
In Qatar, the Medium was used after Goodyear conducted a pre-evaluation of the circuit – which was new to the WEC – before the Prologue.
It did this by sending staff to the circuit to scan its surface last year, completing simulator work and taking advice from staff working on its motorcycle racing programme who had visited the Lusail International Circuit in the past.
Where will we see the red “Medium Plus” debut? A firm decision hasn’t yet been made.
“The big thing for us is optimising the right tyres for the right track,” McGregor explained. “I can’t say whether it’s going to be just Bahrain, Bahrain, CoTA and Sao Paulo, where we see the second spec.
“It will cover the slightly more aggressive tracks or tracks with higher sliding energy. Bahrain is most aggressive on the calendar, so I am sure we will, at the very least, see it used there.”
In general, it feels like ‘mission accomplished’ at Goodyear to this point with its LMGT3 project.
Despite the tight timeframe to develop its LMGT3 tyres before the 2024 season began (it started work before the tender process with the ACO concluded to ensure it could deliver a strong product), the feedback on the new rubber was positive across the board during tours of the paddock in Qatar.
“I have to take my hat off to our R&D team,” McGregor concluded. “The challenge they had to develop a tyre that can double stint, that can’t be pre-warmed, that is used by nine manufacturers with varied weight distributions and aero platforms, and be strong for Bronze and Platinum drivers, was massive.
“They have done an amazing job.”
Spa test images courtesy of Paragraph 5 and Goodyear
