Why F1's 'misleading' tyre graphic is better than you think

The recent introduction of a tyre wear graphic on Formula 1 TV broadcasts appeared to mostly prompt annoyance and confusion. Was that fair?

Jonathan Noble Nov 17, 2019, 3:59 PM

Motorsport.com's Prime content

The best content from Motorsport.com Prime, our subscription service. Subscribe here to get access to all the features.

With all of us seemingly hard-wired to dislike change, it was little wonder that the unexpected arrival of a new Formula 1 graphic a few races ago raised so many eyebrows.

The tyre data graphic – which initially appeared at the Japanese Grand Prix as a 'tyre condition' insight with percentage figures for all four corners of the car – left fans, teams and even Pirelli (whose data had not been used to come up with the figures) confused about what was going on.

Share Or Save This Story

Author Jonathan Noble

Jonathan Noble is Motorsport.com’s Formula 1 editor. Having graduated from University of Sussex Jonathan worked for sports news agency Collings Sports reporting on F1, F3, touring cars and other sports, with articles appearing in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Reuters, Autosport and other publications. In 1999 he moved to Haymarket Publishing to become a senior editor at Autosport Special Projects, and one year later he became Autosport’s grand prix editor. In 2015 he moved to Motorsport Network, becoming the F1 editor for Motorsport.com. He is also a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers, and sits on the FIA Media Council.

Jonathan has won multiple awards for journalism - in 1991 he was the winner of the Guild of Motoring Writers’ Sir William Lyons’ Award for young journalists, in 2010 he was awarded the Outstanding Individual accolade for consumer journalism in the Haymarket wards, in 2011 he won Haymarket’s Scoop of the Year, and in 2018 he was awarded a prestigious Medaglia d’Oro at the Lorenzo Bandini Awards for his contribution to F1 journalism.