By Dave Lewandowski

SÃO PAULO, Brazil – Red or black, sir?

The 11-turn, 2.6-mile São Paulo Indy 300 circuit features the longest street-course straightaway on the IZOD IndyCar Series calendar, a hairpin final turn leading to the finish line sprint and 10 other tight and slippery corners.

So the correct tire selection is one of the considerations for team engineers and drivers during a short (two practice sessions followed by three rounds of qualifications and a 30-minute warm-up a few hours before the race) season-opening race weekend.

“This will, for sure, be the fastest street course I have ever raced on,” Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing’s Hideki Mutoh said. “There will be some high speeds, especially in the race if you are behind someone and can slipstream and get a tow.  There are also a lot of slow corners that will be tricky and the track will be bumpy and the concrete will be slippery. There is also a camber change at the slow corners at Turns 3 and 4. I think you will need a car with good traction and you have to be able to put the power down.”

All cars must use at least one primary set and one new alternate set (from their allotment of three sets) during the 75-lap race for a minimum of two green flag laps. Each entry has six sets of primary tires for the two-day event. At teams’ discretion, alternate tires also can be utilized during qualifications.

The primary Firehawks are derived from the same spec as last year at Long Beach and Toronto. The alternate spec for São Paulo is identical to the 2009 primary spec for St. Petersburg. The alternate tires are identical in construction to the primaries but contain a softer tread compound that will provide more grip and faster lap times, yet trade off compound durability in exchange for those shorter-term advantages.

Also available, if needed, are street course rain specification tires (five sets per entry).

“The Firestone tires chosen for this event – both the primary and alternate specifications – are race-tested, so even though this is a new track, we anticipate that the Firehawks will stand up to whatever the streets of São Paulo have to offer,” Firestone Racing executive director Al Speyer said.

As a refresher, three rounds of qualifications are used on street and road courses. Oval events employ the aggregate of four timed laps to set the grid. In Round 1 of the São Paulo event, two sets of 12 cars each have 20 minutes (including full-course yellow) to post their best lap times. The top six from each group advances to Round 2, with the remaining cars assigned positions 13-24.

The 12 advancing cars receive 15 minutes of track time. The top six advance to the Firestone Fast Six, with the remaining cars ranked in positions 7-12 based on their fastest lap time in the session.

The cars in the Firestone Fast Six shootout receive 10 minutes of track time. Each car receives an extra set of Firestone Firehawk primary tires for the segment, with the PEAK Performance Pole Award winner and the next five cars determined by lap time.

Firestone Fast Six fast facts (16 events)

34 – Drivers who have improved their starting position (34.5 percent).
20 – Drivers who have participated in the session.
15 – Helio Castroneves leads all drivers by participating 15 times. Tony Kanaan is second with 14.
12 – Drivers who have improved to the pole position during the session.
2.25 – Average starting position of the driver who entered the Firestone Fast Six with the fastest lap from the previous segment.

source http://www.indycar.com