Tire Pressure Mapping by F1 Teams - Why and How

XSensor’s pressure mapping systems are used by tire manufacturers, vehicle manufacturers and motorsport teams around the world.

20 March 2026

Interface Force

Why F1 Teams Pressure Map Tires

F1 teams want to find out how the tire footprint changes while subject to different loads when accelerating, braking, turning etc. They also like to run these tests with different tire inflation pressures and different camber angles. This data can then be combined with data collected during other, dynamic testing, to gain a better understanding of how the handling and overall performance of the car might change under different load conditions.

This understanding has become increasingly important with the change to wider tires for the 2022 season.

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How F1 Teams “See” the Tire Footprint

Tire pressure mapping offers the F1 engineer the possibility of seeing, measuring and recording the footprint in 2D or 3D under different loading conditions quickly and easily. XSensor’s high-speed Tire Pressure Mapping system also offers tire and chassis engineers the possibility of measuring the tire footprint, dynamically at speed of up to 140kph. Unfortunately, teams are prohibited from measuring the tire footprint in this way. Therefore, any measurements are made on a static test rig.

The design of the test rig will vary but will have the following elements

An axle to mount a wheel and tire assembly
A means of applying a known force to the tire’s contact patch
A method of measuring the force being applied, normally a load cell
A method of adjusting the camber angle
A method of inflating and varying tire inflation pressure
A tire pressure mapping system capable of viewing, recording and measuring the tire footprint.

A force is applied to the tire’s contact patch while the pressure mapping system records the tire footprint, frame by frame. Data collected includes a 2D or 3D image of the contact area, peak and average pressure, contact patch size, estimated load and more as the tire is loaded to the chosen peak force then unloaded.

This process is repeated for both the front and rear tires over several chosen loads and often several different inflation pressures. The data can then be viewed, as it’s recorded, saved and exported as PNG, JPG or AVI files. Individual frames, groups of frames or complete data sets can be exported as CSVs for import into another software package to be combined with other data for further analysis.

XSensor has been developing and supplying high-resolution systems for high-speed, very low speed and static measurements for many years. These systems are used by tire manufacturers, vehicle manufacturers and motorsport teams around the world. Sensor mats are offered in a choice of sizes up to 1 meter by 1 meter with over 65,500 sensor points.

They offer very high-resolution images when combined with XSensor’s Pro V8 software. Pro V8 features many data analysis tools, including dedicated tire measurement tools that meet ASTM standards, offering a powerful means of viewing, collecting and analysing data.

Interface Force Measurements have been XSensor’s distributor since 2007, giving us extensive experience with XSensor’s pressure mapping systems and a multitude of different applications. We can supply complete systems with on-site demonstrations conducted by an experienced pressure mapping specialist. On-site training and technical support are also included.

If you need a one-off test or measurement session, we offer consultation services where we visit your site, equipped with the appropriate sensor mats, electronics and software to record any pressure mapping data required. All information is exported into a file format that you can use with other software packages.