How do I stop my tyres overheating?

Find which tyre and why. Start with pressure: too high and the core builds heat and the contact patch shrinks — set cold so the tyre lands mid-window hot (a slick typically rises ~16–24% from cold). Then check camber via the inner/middle/outer edge temperatures, and finally the balance — an understeering car cooks its fronts, an oversteering car its rears. Fix the cause, not the lap time.

Why are my rear tyres hotter than my fronts?

One axle running hotter means it's doing more of the work. A rear that overheats points to oversteer, a locked power differential scrubbing the rears on exit, or rear pressures and camber being off. Balance the car so both axles share the load and the temperatures even out.

What is the tyre temperature window?

Every tyre makes its best grip in a narrow band of temperature. Below it the rubber is cold and slippery; above it the surface goes greasy and grains or blisters, and each lap is slower than the last. The whole point of pressures, camber and balance is to keep the tyre in that band for the length of a stint.

How to Fix Tyre Overheating in Sim Racing — Keep Them in the Window

What tyre overheating actually is

A tyre makes its best grip in a narrow temperature window. Push past it and the rubber goes greasy, the surface grains or blisters, and every lap is slower than the last. Overheating is usually a symptom: too much pressure (the core builds heat), wrong camber (one edge takes all the load), or a balance that makes one axle do too much work.

The number that sets the window — see tyre pressures and the brake thermal window.

How the engineers diagnose it

Overheating is a symptom — the engineers trace it back to its cause:

Pressure — the hot pressure is the readout. Too high and the centre of the tread overheats and the contact patch shrinks. Set cold so the tyre lands mid-window hot (a slick typically rises ~16–24%).
Camber and edge temps — if the inner edge runs far hotter than the outer, there’s too much camber cooking that edge; if one axle runs hotter than the other, the balance is overworking that end.
Workload and balance — an understeering car burns its fronts, an oversteering car its rears, a locked diff scrubs the rears on entry. Fix the balance and the temperatures follow.

Tyre temperature is where setup and strategy meet — a tyre kept in its window is grip you still have on lap twenty. One change, a full stint, read the thermal trace. See the glossary and the setup guide.

The levers that cure overheating

From the tyre outward — pressure and camber first, then the balance that loads them:

Tyre pressures → Camber → Brake thermal window → Anti-roll bars → Differential → Aero balance & CoP →

Fix it on your own car — free The full setup guide