Tyre pressures at Brands Hatch Indy

The Brands Hatch Indy loop, drawn bold on the venue's mapped tarmac; the loop's measured length agrees with the layout's published lap length. Track outline © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).

How hard a circuit works each corner of the car shows up as tread temperature, and temperature is what sets pressure. GripCalc carries corner heating figures for Brands Hatch Indy as a starting point: how much hotter each tyre runs over the session's base temperature, from the layout's mix of corners and load. They pre-fill the calculator when you pick the circuit, and your own pyrometer readings refine them from the first session.

ESTIMATED — class-based starting values over an 85°C session base, derived from this layout's type (direction, speed profile, load), and shared with circuits of similar character rather than measured here. Not gospel: enter your own pyrometer figures after a session and they take precedence.

Brands Hatch Indy, on paper

OSM — the sections mappers have named on this venue's tarmac: Hawthorns Bend · McLaren · Clark Curve · Paddock Hill · Druids Bend · Cooper Straight · Graham Hill Bend · Surtees · Pilgrims Drop · Derek Minter Straight · Westfield Bend · Brabham Straight · Dingle Dell · Sheene Curve · Stirlings Bend · Rally Stage 1 · Hailwoods Hill · Hawthorn Hill · Dingle Dell Corner · Clearways · Rally Stage 2

Lengths are measured from the OpenStreetMap geometry drawn above, on the loop verified against this layout’s published lap length; the longest straight is derived from the same line and is approximate. Section names are the venue's, and can belong to any of its layouts.

What Brands Hatch Indy asks of a tyre

Brands Hatch Indy measures 1.92 km on the map, run clockwise, with 5 corners counted along that line — 2 left, 3 right. Corners come about every 383 m, so the lap is more about carrying speed between them than surviving them back to back. It is a short lap, so those corners come round again and again within a session — heat accumulates lap on lap, and going out with pressures that were right at the start is the classic way to finish a session several psi over target. Nothing on the lap is straight for longer than about 281 m, so there is no stretch where the tread gets a real chance to cool.

DERIVED — length, corner count, hands and straight measured from the mapped lap drawn above. Corner counting is a judgement (a double apex can be read as one corner or two), so treat these as this line's reading of the circuit, not a series' official figures.

The Indy circuit is short, intense and almost all right-handers: Paddock Hill Bend's famous downhill compression, Druids hairpin, Graham Hill, Clearways. Laps come around quickly and the left side barely rests. Heat builds fast even in winter, and overpressure by the session's end is the classic Indy mistake.

A 992 GT3 on Cup 2 R at Brands Hatch Indy

Published hot target 30.5 / 32.0 psi at 92°C tread, on a 15°C morning, with the corner figures above: cold set 21.5 / 21.5 front, 22.6 / 22.6 rear. A different car, tyre or morning moves every number, which is what the calculator is for.

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