What Do I Need to Know About Tyre Pressures in iRacing?
Published on May 11, 2025
What Do I Need to Know About Tyre Pressures in iRacing?
Tyres are your only contact with the track — here’s how pressure changes affect them in iRacing.
Tyre pressure is a simple but powerful tuning tool — and iRacing treats it differently than many other sims.
🔍 Why Tyre Pressure Matters
Tyre pressure affects:
- Grip
- Tyre wear
- Suspension balance
- Straight-line speed
Even 0.1 psi can change your lap time.
🧪 How Tyre Pressures Work in iRacing
- You set cold pressures in the garage
- Heat builds as you drive → hot pressures rise
- Pressure affects grip, ride height, and tyre flex
- The goal is ideal hot pressures, not cold
🔧 Effects of Pressure Changes
🔼 Higher Pressure:
- Slightly less grip
- Quicker in a straight line
- More reactive handling
🔽 Lower Pressure:
- More grip, more flex
- Can overheat or feel squirmy
- More stable and predictable (to a point)
📏 Target Pressure Range
- Hot pressures between 27.5–28.5 psi suit most cars
- Tune cold pressures to hit that after a few laps
🔁 How to Tune Pressures
- Drive 3–5 laps
- Check hot pressures in Garage → Summary
- Adjust cold pressures:
- Add psi if hot is too low
- Drop psi if hot is too high
- Repeat!
Tip: Change one axle or one side at a time
🤖 Use AiDE for Smarter Setup Tuning
Let AiDE — your AI race engineer — do the hard work.
Tell it what the car feels like, and it handles the rest.
“Too much oversteer mid-corner”
“Takes too long to heat up tyres”
AiDE adjusts tyre pressures (and more).
🏁 Summary
Tyre pressures in iRacing are essential to performance. Understanding how cold vs. hot pressures work gives you an edge — or just let AiDE tune it for you.