How to drive with new tires for qualifying- driving style change

I raced in Rotax max Challenge

one thing that I always got problem with is qualifying. I could not use all the grip of the new tires any my laptime in quali is usually slower than race pace with older tires.

can anyone shed some light on driving style change that would help to get the most of new tires in qualifying? Thanks

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Do you practice on old tyres between races? How old?

How do you go into Quali session? Brand new tires on and push immediately or what? Tell us a bit more.

If you’re using old rubber to practice, your driving adapts to the declining grip. But it adapts very subtly - you won’t even notice……until you slap on new rubber and go more slowly because it’s a big sudden change in how the kart handles. I set myself a limit of 100 laps practice on race tires after the event is done. If I still want more practice for the next round I put new rubber and run them maximum 170 laps. Even that isn’t ideal it still takes time to get on top of fresh rubber. Ideally put new rubber to practice on and change them out after running race weekend distance on them, that way you’re always driving with race condition grip level, except for track rubbering of course.

Then there’s your Quali approach, best I find is to put your new race weekend tyres on for final official practice session, go out warm them up to temperature SLOWLY - 2/3 laps, then come in and allow to cool naturally. If you go out on fresh rubber and push immediately you’ll heat them up too fast and cook the rubber. Condition them first for best results.

@Ryan_Norberg has a good video discussing this. There’s a lot of variables to consider (tire compound, track condition, driver skill level, etc), but he gets the main points down on things to work on.

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I ALWAYS use new rubber for practice. In our local track, new rubber will last 60-80 laps depending on track conditions. IF I do quali practice, normally an outlap followed by 1-2 warm up laps, and then 2 hot laps. so the tires are properly warmed up before being pushed. I think the main problem is that I drive the same way with the new and old rubbers. same brake points, did not carry enough speed into the corner and throttle application as the same spot… so I’m usually off pace by 8 tenth in quali but during the race the gap is reduced to only 4 tenth… i have to try different driving style in quali…

Ryan’s video is a good resource on how to improve qualifying

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thanks for posting the video. this is exactly what I need to learn and adapt