Forum topic: Tyres

I'd like to start a discussion on the suitability of this season's tyre suppliers: there are two choices - 1 mediocre, 1 terrible. Not Terrible [1], but in practice really quite Bad [4/10].

I get that there is an important choice to be made about normal/partner/works contracts and tyre supplier themselves (for which the whole of Div1/2 and I think pretty much every Junior team has come to the same conclusion), but aren't new teams are automatically set up with the 'entry' tyres?

Does this mean a new team joining now will have hard tyres at what? 30% grip? Less? And softs at...50% for one lap, but 30% after about 3 laps? Particularly given that the 'cliff' starts around 30% anyway, it must be completely dispiriting to have a whole season stretching out before you knowing that your tyres are absolute rubbish and you'll probably need to make 6 stops to give your drivers even a little bit of hope that they won't fall off the track.

There is already a pace difference between Hard/Medium/Soft, so why do they also need to start at different %grip levels? Make the pace difference larger and have them all start at the same % - Pointer Hards starting at 50% and degrading slower than softs would go part-way to compensate for the terrible grip they have overall. Or preferably not having a supplier that has such a terrible performance be the default for new teams.