slk55er

Impressive running of the GT S around the wet Monza track this morning. Anybody know what tires were on the F1 pace car? I assume they are Pirelli.

descartesfool

That was indeed an impressive performance in the wet at Monza today for quali, and the GT-S received a ton of airtime with some nice slo-mo shots of it riding the curbs.
The tires are indeed Pirelli, Pzeros. When I drove the F1 track at the Montreal GP last year in a GT-S courtesy of Mercedes at the AMG event, I had the pleasure of a long chat with Berndt Mylander who came to see us and show off the safety car and I asked him about which tires they run at the F1 tracks. He said they always have the safety car shod with street tires as they have to be ready to go on track with seconds of notice, and there is no time for a tire change from track tries to road tires. So it is road tires always.

And surprisingly, the safety car does not have a roll cage or even a roll bar. I asked why and Berndt said he and Charlie Whiting had discussed it and decided it did not need one because it is, after all, a safety car, and not a race car. It does have an FIA rated race seat and 6-point harnesses. Although he says that in the wet he always drives the car at 100% and he is really on the limit and that it is a little nerve wracking with 20 or so F1 cars behind him, in the dry he just runs it at about 95%.

slk55er

Thank you so much for the info and photos. You have had some special privileges!

From the photo of the tire, I see it is a 265/35x19 with a 94Y rating. Looking at that size on the Tire Rack site, it appears that these are the PZero N2(Porsche) UTQG: 220 AA A which is the only PZero with the 94Y rating. I wish the UTQG were higher, but that is the price one pays for "sticky."