I have been seeing a lot of confusion regarding tyres and tyre life recently, and I will be using this guide to help clear up any misunderstandings.

All data and information has been taken from a Vanilla version of SingleSeaterDesignData.txt (SSDD), which contains all information relating to cliff percentages, tyre life and tyre bands to name but a few things. This document can only currently be obtained via the Unity Assets Bundle Extractor, and is not currently Workshop compatible. GT works exactly the same, but all data is contained within GTDesignData.txt (GTDD).

I will be using abbreviations throughout this guide so I don’t have to keep repeating long titles. As you have already seen above, the first time I will write something out in full, then put the abbreviation in brackets.

I’ll start off this guide with the easiest to understand information, and is one of the things that the game and UI don’t show reliably, and is different for every compound – Cliff Percentage.

Each compound has a specific percentage at which a ‘Cliff Penalty’ (CP) is applied, and is a flat 8 seconds across every tyre. This means that shortly after hitting the C% an immediate CP of 8 seconds per lap is now being applied. Therefore, whether you use Ultrasofts (Ultras) or Intermediates (Inters), it’ll always be 8 seconds.

Below are the C%’s for each compound available:-

Ultras – 20%
Supers – 15%
Softs – 10%
Mediums – 5%
Hards – 0%
Inters – 0%
Wets – 0%

These are the percentages you should go by when planning to pit. I see people saying that you should always pit at 25% regardless of the compound, which is incorrect. The number merely goes red to alert you to the fact your tyres are wearing out, but it has no bearing on whether the tyre is finished yet. You also will not see a drop in pace exactly on 25%, which I will address later on.

There are no driver stats, modifiers, or preferences which change these percentages; they are fixed throughout the game.

Next up is the tyre mode, or driving style, you can give your driver during a race. Each choice has a very simple multiplier to tyre wear (and tyre temperature). That’s it, nothing special.

The wear multipliers are:-

Attack – 1.4
Push – 1.2
Neutral – 1
Conserve – 0.8
Back Up – 0.6

The usefulness of each style beyond raw pace hinges largely on which race length setting you have in your Preferences. You’ll likely get the same number of laps by running Attack and Push all the time as the life of the tyre is low in Short, but you may lose 2 or 3 laps in Long. The same goes for Conserve and Back Up, where you’ll likely not notice any gain in life at all on Short, but you can gain 4 or 5 laps on the hardest compounds available at any given weekend on Long.

These multipliers are also fixed throughout the entire game, with no driver stats, modifiers, or preferences altering them.

This is another basic mechanic I am seeing being misunderstood.

The temperature gauge has no effect EXCEPT for when the needle is either at the extreme top, or extreme bottom, of the gauge. Therefore, if you hold the TT within these extremes, you will never suffer wear penalties. It should be noted, however, that there are NO PACE PENALTIES for running at the extremes. The line which should apply the pace penalty does not appear to work.

The former is supported by the following line in the designdata: <TyreTemperatureWearModiffier>0.5</TyreTemperatureWearModiffier>

This means that if you are at the upper or lower extremes, your tyres will wear more quickly, by an dditional 50% on top of the wear rate of your selected aggression setting.

However, through my own gameplay, I have noted that when running the tyres on yellow there seems to be no wear penalty at all when running with freezing cold tyres. I have not tested this with overheating tyres, but once I have solid evidence of this being the same, I will state it as such here. Until then, take this as purely anecdotal evidence and let me know if you find anything different.

A further mechanic in play here that is neither seen nor mentioned is how the compounds react to ambient temperature (AT), and that is every compound has its own set of AT's (track temps, air temps) where it will gain and lose TT. Ultras require the lowest ambient to warm up, and Hards require the highest. This is an important thing to consider when deciding which compounds you will run in the race, as you will lose laps on a Hard tyre that you have to push all the time to keep the temps up, and gain laps on a Soft tyre you have to run the whole stint on Conserve.

I’ve had to make this name up, because there is no name for it mentioned in SSDD. Simply, every dry weather compound available at a race weekend falls into one of three categories. The categories are ‘Softest’, ‘Middle’, and ‘Hardest’ and are applied regardless of which compounds you have available.

A couple of important notes and examples:-
1) If the tyre selection is Ultras/Supers/Softs as your dry weather tyres, then Ultras will be your Softest, Supers will be your Middle, and Softs will be your Hardest.

2) If the tyre selection is Softs/Mediums/Hards as your dry weather tyres, then Softs will be your Softest, Mediums will be your Middle, and Hards will be your Hardest.

*Another very important point to note – the 2 Dry Weather Tyre rule will restrict you to Softest and Middle only, with Hardest only being available when the 3 Dry Weather Tyre rule is active.*

These are the categories from which the number of laps a tyre will run and the speed at which it does them is determined by, NOT by the actual compound itself.

Again, this is all fixed and never differs through driver stats or other modifiers or preferences

This is one of the most important, and complicated to explain, aspects of the tyres in SSDD. These define two things – tyre life and the pace of the tyre.


Every tyre category at a race weekend has three bands – High Performance, Medium Performance and Low Performance. The first aspect of these bands is the number of laps which a tyre lasts in each. The number of laps for each band is added together to get the rough life of the tyre. Therefore, if your Softest compound at a weekend is Ultras, and they have 2 Fast laps, 6 Medium laps and 3 Slow laps, then you can expect them to run for 8-11 laps. If your Softest at the next race is Supers, then they will have the SAME BASE LIFE as the Ultras last weekend, as the compound does not dictate the life, but the category does.

This base life of each available compound is then modified by three things – the tyre wear rating of the track, where your driver is ranked for Smoothness, and where your chassis is ranked for Tyre Wear.

Track Tyre Wear Rating:

The first modifier cannot be affected by driver stats or chassis, it is a fixed modifier that will either add laps, or take them away, from the Medium band of a tyre. This modifier is specific to the race length you have chosen in your Preferences, with Short adding/removing the least laps, and Long the most.

Driver Smoothness Stat:

As of 1.5, this has a new way of being calculated. The additional or penalty laps are now taken as a direct reading from the driver's Smoothness stat. This means that even if your driver has a Smoothness of 6, while every other driver has a Smoothness of less than 6, you will not get bonus laps anymore. As it stands, it's a little up in the air where the mid-point is, but is assumed to be a Smoothness stat of 10. Anything above 10 will result in the bonus laps, anything below 10 will result in reduced laps.

Old info:
Almost every driver in the championship takes a lap penalty, or gains bonus laps, depending on where they rank against the other drivers in the championship. The drivers are divided into three groups based on their Smoothness. Those in the bottom third take a tyre life penalty, those in the middle third neither gain nor lose any tyre life and those in the top third gain a tyre life bonus. The bonus and penalty is scaled to the race length you have chosen in your Preferences.

Chassis Tyre Wear Rating:

As with driver Smoothness, the bonus or penalty laps you get through the chassis are now a direct rating, rather than just 'who has the highest rating'. Again, this is something I'm actively testing as I play, as it's even more ambiguous than the driver Smoothness adjustments.

Old info:
Lastly, every team in the championship is then ranked based on the Tyre Wear rating of their chassis. Again, everyone is split into 3 groups and the tyre life penalty/bonus is applied in the same fashion as the Smoothness ranking above.

Preferences:

While not explicitly a modifier, you will have a differing amount of base laps in each band based on your race length Preferences.

Every bonus/penalty lap is then added/removed from the MEDIUM band laps of each compound available. You will never lose (or gain) Fast or Slow laps, these are always a constant.


The second thing the bands define is the time penalty for being in them. These are different for every dry weather tyre, with the Softest tyre having the smallest initial penalties, and the Hardest having the largest. However, the Hardest has a lower penalty in the Slow laps than the Softest. They are applied as soon as you cross over into a new band, which is especially noticeable in practice where the third or fourth lap of a stint is clearly slower than the previous ones.

These bands are unaffected by driver stats and other modifiers, but they DO CHANGE based on your preferences.


Tyre wear is vastly reduced while behind the SC, however you will still use up your fast and middle laps as they are a fixed quantity and not based on current tyre life. Therefore putting a new set of tyres on at the start of an SC period will result in losing the fast laps of a tyre, leaving you with only the middle and slow laps remaining. Of course, the AI will likely have the same issue, so it all balances out.

As this is quite a hefty section which is probably pretty confusing, I will put the raw data from SSDD for each race length preference in the sections below, which should help clear up any queries on this.

Lastly, the bands are not tied to specific percentages of wear, they are lap based, which means you can enter Low Performance laps before or after 25%.

<!-- SOFTEST TYRE COMPOUND AT A RACE WEEKEND -->
<FirstOptionTyres>

<HighPerformanceLapCount>4</HighPerformanceLapCount>
<HighPerformanceTimeCost>0</HighPerformanceTimeCost>

<MediumPerformanceLapCount>3</MediumPerformanceLapCount>
<MediumPerformanceTimeCost>1.25</MediumPerformanceTimeCost>

<LowPerformanceLapCount>2</LowPerformanceLapCount>
<LowPerformanceTimeCost>4.0</LowPerformanceTimeCost>

<DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>1</DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>
<DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>1</DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>

<CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>1</CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>
<CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>1</CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>

<!-- MIDDLE TYRE COMPOUND AT A RACE WEEKEND -->
<SecondOptionTyres>

<HighPerformanceLapCount>3</HighPerformanceLapCount>
<HighPerformanceTimeCost>0.75</HighPerformanceTimeCost>

<MediumPerformanceLapCount>6</MediumPerformanceLapCount>
<MediumPerformanceTimeCost>1.75</MediumPerformanceTimeCost>

<LowPerformanceLapCount>2</LowPerformanceLapCount>
<LowPerformanceTimeCost>3.5</LowPerformanceTimeCost>

<DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>1</DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>
<DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>1</DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>

<CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>1</CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>
<CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>1</CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>

<!-- HARDEST TYRE COMPOUND AT A RACE WEEKEND -->
<ThirdOptionTyres>

<HighPerformanceLapCount>3</HighPerformanceLapCount>
<HighPerformanceTimeCost>1.5</HighPerformanceTimeCost>

<MediumPerformanceLapCount>6</MediumPerformanceLapCount>
<MediumPerformanceTimeCost>2</MediumPerformanceTimeCost>

<LowPerformanceLapCount>4</LowPerformanceLapCount>
<LowPerformanceTimeCost>2.5</LowPerformanceTimeCost>

<DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>1</DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>
<DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>1</DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>

<CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>1</CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>
<CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>1</CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>


<!-- INTERMEDIATE TYRES -->
<IntermediatesTyres>

<HighPerformanceLapCount>3</HighPerformanceLapCount>
<HighPerformanceTimeCost>1</HighPerformanceTimeCost>

<MediumPerformanceLapCount>5</MediumPerformanceLapCount>
<MediumPerformanceTimeCost>1.5</MediumPerformanceTimeCost>

<LowPerformanceLapCount>3</LowPerformanceLapCount>
<LowPerformanceTimeCost>3.5</LowPerformanceTimeCost>

<DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>1</DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>
<DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>1</DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>

<CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>1</CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>
<CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>1</CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>

<!-- WET TYRES -->
<WetTyres>

<HighPerformanceLapCount>3</HighPerformanceLapCount>
<HighPerformanceTimeCost>1</HighPerformanceTimeCost>

<MediumPerformanceLapCount>5</MediumPerformanceLapCount>
<MediumPerformanceTimeCost>1.5</MediumPerformanceTimeCost>

<LowPerformanceLapCount>3</LowPerformanceLapCount>
<LowPerformanceTimeCost>3.5</LowPerformanceTimeCost>

<DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>1</DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>
<DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>1</DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>

<CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>1</CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>
<CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>1</CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>

<!-- SOFTEST TYRE COMPOUND AT A RACE WEEKEND -->
<FirstOptionTyres>

<HighPerformanceLapCount>4</HighPerformanceLapCount>
<HighPerformanceTimeCost>0</HighPerformanceTimeCost>

<MediumPerformanceLapCount>4</MediumPerformanceLapCount>
<MediumPerformanceTimeCost>1</MediumPerformanceTimeCost>

<LowPerformanceLapCount>3</LowPerformanceLapCount>
<LowPerformanceTimeCost>5</LowPerformanceTimeCost>

<DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>1</DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>
<DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>1</DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>

<CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>1</CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>
<CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>1</CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>

<!-- MIDDLE TYRE COMPOUND AT A RACE WEEKEND -->
<SecondOptionTyres>

<HighPerformanceLapCount>3</HighPerformanceLapCount>
<HighPerformanceTimeCost>0.75</HighPerformanceTimeCost>

<MediumPerformanceLapCount>8</MediumPerformanceLapCount>
<MediumPerformanceTimeCost>2</MediumPerformanceTimeCost>

<LowPerformanceLapCount>4</LowPerformanceLapCount>
<LowPerformanceTimeCost>3.5</LowPerformanceTimeCost>

<DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>1</DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>
<DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>1</DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>

<CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>1</CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>
<CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>1</CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>

<!-- HARDEST TYRE COMPOUND AT A RACE WEEKEND -->
<ThirdOptionTyres>

<HighPerformanceLapCount>5</HighPerformanceLapCount>
<HighPerformanceTimeCost>2</HighPerformanceTimeCost>

<MediumPerformanceLapCount>10</MediumPerformanceLapCount>
<MediumPerformanceTimeCost>2.5</MediumPerformanceTimeCost>

<LowPerformanceLapCount>5</LowPerformanceLapCount>
<LowPerformanceTimeCost>3.0</LowPerformanceTimeCost>

<DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>1</DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>
<DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>1</DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>

<CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>1</CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>
<CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>1</CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>

<!-- INTERMEDIATE TYRES -->
<IntermediatesTyres>

<HighPerformanceLapCount>4</HighPerformanceLapCount>
<HighPerformanceTimeCost>1</HighPerformanceTimeCost>

<MediumPerformanceLapCount>8</MediumPerformanceLapCount>
<MediumPerformanceTimeCost>1.3</MediumPerformanceTimeCost>

<LowPerformanceLapCount>4</LowPerformanceLapCount>
<LowPerformanceTimeCost>3.5</LowPerformanceTimeCost>

<DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>1</DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>
<DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>1</DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>

<CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>1</CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>
<CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>1</CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>

<!-- WET TYRES -->
<WetTyres>

<HighPerformanceLapCount>4</HighPerformanceLapCount>
<HighPerformanceTimeCost>1</HighPerformanceTimeCost>

<MediumPerformanceLapCount>8</MediumPerformanceLapCount>
<MediumPerformanceTimeCost>1.3</MediumPerformanceTimeCost>

<LowPerformanceLapCount>4</LowPerformanceLapCount>
<LowPerformanceTimeCost>3.5</LowPerformanceTimeCost>

<DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>1</DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>
<DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>1</DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>

<CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>1</CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>
<CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>1</CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>

<!-- SOFTEST TYRE COMPOUND AT A RACE WEEKEND -->
<FirstOptionTyres>

<HighPerformanceLapCount>9</HighPerformanceLapCount>
<HighPerformanceTimeCost>0</HighPerformanceTimeCost>

<MediumPerformanceLapCount>7</MediumPerformanceLapCount>
<MediumPerformanceTimeCost>1.5</MediumPerformanceTimeCost>

<LowPerformanceLapCount>4</LowPerformanceLapCount>
<LowPerformanceTimeCost>3.5</LowPerformanceTimeCost>

<DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>2</DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>
<DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>2</DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>

<CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>3</CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>
<CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>3</CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>

<!-- MIDDLE TYRE COMPOUND AT A RACE WEEKEND -->
<SecondOptionTyres>

<HighPerformanceLapCount>5</HighPerformanceLapCount>
<HighPerformanceTimeCost>0.75</HighPerformanceTimeCost>

<MediumPerformanceLapCount>17</MediumPerformanceLapCount>
<MediumPerformanceTimeCost>1.75</MediumPerformanceTimeCost>

<LowPerformanceLapCount>6</LowPerformanceLapCount>
<LowPerformanceTimeCost>3.5</LowPerformanceTimeCost>

<DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>3</DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>
<DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>3</DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>

<CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>4</CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>
<CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>4</CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>

<!-- HARDEST TYRE COMPOUND AT A RACE WEEKEND -->
<ThirdOptionTyres>

<HighPerformanceLapCount>9</HighPerformanceLapCount>
<HighPerformanceTimeCost>1.5</HighPerformanceTimeCost>

<MediumPerformanceLapCount>18</MediumPerformanceLapCount>
<MediumPerformanceTimeCost>2</MediumPerformanceTimeCost>

<LowPerformanceLapCount>9</LowPerformanceLapCount>
<LowPerformanceTimeCost>2.5</LowPerformanceTimeCost>

<DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>2</DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>
<DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>2</DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>

<CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>6</CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>
<CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>6</CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>

<!-- INTERMEDIATE TYRES -->
<IntermediatesTyres>

<HighPerformanceLapCount>5</HighPerformanceLapCount>
<HighPerformanceTimeCost>1</HighPerformanceTimeCost>

<MediumPerformanceLapCount>9</MediumPerformanceLapCount>
<MediumPerformanceTimeCost>1.3</MediumPerformanceTimeCost>

<LowPerformanceLapCount>5</LowPerformanceLapCount>
<LowPerformanceTimeCost>3.5</LowPerformanceTimeCost>

<DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>1</DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>
<DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>1</DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>

<CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>1</CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>
<CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>1</CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>

<!-- WET TYRES -->
<WetTyres>

<HighPerformanceLapCount>5</HighPerformanceLapCount>
<HighPerformanceTimeCost>1</HighPerformanceTimeCost>

<MediumPerformanceLapCount>9</MediumPerformanceLapCount>
<MediumPerformanceTimeCost>1.3</MediumPerformanceTimeCost>

<LowPerformanceLapCount>5</LowPerformanceLapCount>
<LowPerformanceTimeCost>3.5</LowPerformanceTimeCost>

<DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>1</DriverSmoothnessLapCountIncrease>
<DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>1</DriverSmoothnessLapCountDecrease>

<CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>1</CircuitHighTyreWearLapCountDecrease>
<CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>1</CircuitLowTyreWearLapCountIncrease>

I think I’ll finish this up on an easy topic.

Every compound has a time penalty which is applied when you use them in the wrong weather. This is a penalty that is not fixed, and becomes more severe the further you are from the optimum conditions. Wets and Inters also suffer a wear penalty in addition to the time penalty when they are used in dry conditions.

The maximum wrong weather penalties are:-

Ultras – 20 seconds
Supers – 20 seconds
Softs – 20 seconds
Mediums – 20 seconds
Hards – 20 seconds
Inters – 10 seconds
Wets – 20 seconds

Tyre Crossover:

There is also a point at which the wrong weather penalties come into effect. As these are written in numbers and ingame you only have a bar, it can be difficult to judge and compare the figures below and how it’s displayed on the UI.

Crossover points:

Dry <-> Inters – 0.10-0.12
Inters <-> Wets – 0.60-0.65

As most other things, these values cannot be altered through driver stats, modifiers or Preferences.

The crossover points can now be altered by a driver's Adaptability stat. A driver with 20 Adaptability can run dry tyres 5% further into wet weather than a driver with 0 Adaptability.

I hope this guide has helped you, the player, to better understand how the tyres are working and determined in the background, and that it answers any queries you may have had.

This will also hopefully put an end to the misinformation being spread about how tyres work using anecdotal evidence, with the presentation of the raw data from the very file that controls the way your compounds are determined and how they work in the race.

If you have any questions about things I haven't mentioned, or forgot to include, please ask in the comments, and let me know of any errors I have made so I can correct them.