In this test I am going to attemt to give some data on F1 2013 tire degredation.
I will drive three times on the Melbourn track and each time with a different amount of fuel use.
Each test will stop when my car slips 3 times due damaged tires.

Note that this test isn't a great representation of what will happen to your tires so take this information with a grain of salt as this is only one track and one type of tire.

• Track: Melbourne
  
• Car: Lotus
  
• Mode: Grand Prix - Practice
  
• Tires: Option Super Soft
  
• Expected Tire Life: 8 Laps
  
• Starting Fuel Load: 20 Laps

• Fastest Lap: 1.28.171
  
• Tires Heavily worn: Lap 18
  
• First Spin: Lap 20
  
• Test Stop: Lap 20
  
• Fuel Left: 8 Laps

Around lap 16-17 I started to notice the loss of grip in corners and acceleration. Times started to drop but the tires were giving enough grip to drive consistantly. Around lap 18 my tires were completely destroyed but I still had a consistant pace without 1 spin. In lap 20 the tires gave up and I went deep into corners and as I tried to get out I went spinning 3 times in a row.

• Fastest Lap: 1.26.356
  
• Tires Heavily worn: Lap 17
  
• First Spin: Lap 15
  
• Test Stop: Lap 18
  
• Fuel Left: 4 Laps

The increased amount of fuel added a lot of speed decreasing my time by 2 seconds. Due to the increased fuel input you gain lots of acceleration resulting in an earlier spin compared to the Lean fuel mixture. Although the fastest lap increased the car was starting to slow down in roughly around the 12th lap, losing about 0.5 to 1 second per lap. The test stopped 2 laps earlier than the Lean mix. The early grip loss from lap 12 meant that I was fighting the car more to not spin or go deep into corners giving me inconsistent times.

• Fastest Lap: 1.25.363
  
• Tires Heavily worn: Lap 15
  
• First Spin: Lap 8
  
• Test Stop: Lap 10
  
• Fuel Left: 6 Laps at test stop. 0 at Lap 14.

A second faster than standard fuel mix and 3 seconds than the lean mix. Although you are going faster its only for a short while. At lap 8 I had my first spin but was also losing grip in while breaking and in fast speed corners. Fuel is lost very quickly and with the amount of acceleration you just keep spinning while the tires arn't even worn yet.

Keeping in mind that the fuel load isn't as that in races, this does show the possible outcomes for your tires. Now these results may also rely on your driving style but it does give a rough estimate of when your tires will die out. This can be handy when thinking about strategies.

The things I can get out of this data is as follows:

• Lean is best for when you want to keep your tires alive.
  
• Lean is best for when you want to change your strategy mid race because you can still
  handle the car well while the tires are orange/red.
  
• Using standard in combination with Lean will give you consistancy and longer tire life.
  
• Rich fuel is best when trying to overtake someone when accelerating out of sharp corners.

Looking at the Super Soft life time we can roughly determine the moments where it is best to use what fuel mixture. The estimated tire life is also 8, so we can conclude that when the tire life has been reached you will start spinning when going full throttle in turns.



Depending on your qualifying session your tires will lose some quality before the race.
If we keep it to a minimum for Super Softs then maybe you will do 2 to 3 laps on them for qualifying (if you reach Q3).

Rich: 8 laps till spin -3 laps of Q = 5 Laps without spinning.
Standard: 15 laps till spin -3 laps of Q = 12 Laps without spinning.
Lean: 20 Laps till spin -3 laps of Q = 17 Laps without spinning.

With this knowledge we can establish certain ranges for optimum fuel usage. From the start we can set unwritten rules for our fuel depending on our tire wear. So from lap 0 to 5 we are safe to use rich fuel without spinning. This doesn't mean that you should use it for 5 full laps. Just in some occasions where you're accelerating and planning to overtake your opponent. Using the rich option after 5 laps could slow your overall time down and wear the tires down even more quickly and give you a spin here and there.

Standard can be used normaly which will give you decent times and tire degredation. Although in long races it will come to the point where you will be thinking of 2 or 3 stops. So using lean at the end of your tires life could be a great choice. I don't believe this is that important for sprint and 25% races. Because the distance between cars and the amount of pitstops is too small.

Finding the right moment to switch your fuel and change tires is something that takes experience and differs from each track. But using this small test as a guideline to experiment with your strategies could be a great asset.

I hope this clears some stuff up and that you can use this guide for future races.
If you have any questions or suggestions please leave a comment!