In order to extract the quickest lap times from a Formula 1 car, teams run on super-slick, super-sticky bespoke Pirelli tires that are purpose-made for running on some of the best race tracks around the world. But did you know that F1 tires are also great for off-roading?
Slick race tracks and muddy forest trails may sound a world apart, but it turns out that Pirelli race tires are actually pretty good on both surfaces. Specifically, Pirelli’s extreme wet weather tires, which feature a deep tread pattern that’s designed to clear standing water off a race track.
Now, two YouTube channels have come together to find out if the rain-cleaning characteristics of the wet weather tires work on snow and mud as well, and it turns out they do. To investigate this, Quadrant, which is backed by McLaren driver Lando Norris, and Grind Hard Plumbing strapped a set of wet tires to a mini truck and hit the trails.
The truck in question is a six-wheel-drive Mitsubishi Kei truck that was fitted with race-used wheels from the 2013 Marussia F1 car. In order to attach the F1 rims to the truck, Grind Hard Plumbing had to fashion a set of adapters and spacers that could accommodate the ridiculously wide, center-lock F1 wheel and tire package. This process is carried out six times and, obviously, requires a lovely cinematic montage.
Once an adapter has been made for each of the Kei truck’s six wheels, the new Pirelli tires are fitted onto the rims and inflated to around 27 psi.
A few repairs are then made to the truck, which has been through a lot in Grind Hard Plumbing’s other videos, before the custom adapters are installed and the complete F1 wheels and tires can be fitted. The finished creation looks mighty impressive, I must say.
It’s at this point that the truck is handed over to Max Fewtrell, a British racing driver who competed in Formula 3 before making the switch to driving ridiculous cars on the internet.
Fewtrell first tests the F1 tires on sand, where they perform pretty well and kick up some mighty fine rooster tails as the truck is cruises through the desert. They’re pretty fast on the flat and the truck even just about manages to make it over the crest of a sand dune.
After a few fun slides in the slush, the truck is then taken out onto the trail. On the rough stuff, the tires keep traction in the mud surprisingly well and, with a little coaxing, the truck even makes it over some pretty sizable obstacles.
In the snow, the tires fare even better – scampering over the white stuff and deeper into the woods than either driver seems to expect is possible. It just goes to show what these tires are really capable, and means that F1 is rapidly running out of excuses for not hosting a winter race on the calendar.
Just because the Pirelli rubber fared well on this one test, though, doesn’t mean you should run out and swap your truck’s tires for F1 wheels. For a start, that would be incredibly expensive as the tires alone cost around $3,000 for four, and you’ll need to track down a pricey set of F1 rims to run them on.
What’s more, they don’t exactly have the longevity you would want on a truck tire. That’s because Pirelli only designs sets to cover an F1 race distance, which is around 200 miles.
