Hey folks,
Thank you for your detailed feedback on this topic. We've shared an update on this which you can find here: Tyre Allocations - Answer HQ.
I've just come here to point out the same thing as the original poster.
Being locked into 4 sets soft, 1 medium and 1 hard makes alternate strategies almost impossible.
I'm not sure how hard it is to fix this problem but the user being able to choose which tyres are handed back after each practice session would solve the problem. I'm unsure of the exact rule for tyres before the race, but if you are only allowed 6 sets of slicks for the race then the teams IRL must be handing back quali softs in favour of keeping practice run mediums and hards. A simple solution might be to leave all the tyres available for us to run until just before the race start. At that point make the user select 4 sets of tyres to use with the mandatory race designated 1 medium and 1 hard sets. The user could choose 1 hard, 2 mediums and one soft if they like and have a great strategy option.
For me this fix is more important than new tracks. That is fine too but the basics should be fixed first.
@EA_Kent Seeing as this issue is not in the "investigating" section of the Community-Raised Issues list after 3 weeks of it being passed onto the devs, would be great to get an update on it.
Edit: I'd also like to add that this bug is most likely also why every 50% race I've done since 1.06 has had the AI on medium to hard strategy. Every. Single. Race. (Yes, I reported this separately)
The AI has the same lack of flexibility as the player because they're also prevented from using a second medium tyre. This is the one thing that's preventing me from playing a game I only bought a month ago. Every race is a predictable parade because of this problem.
I would add that freeing the player's choice of tyres once and for all is even more necessary now after the latest changes have greatly increased the tyres wear (like IRL and it’s good thing but not having only 1 H and mainly 1 M available for the race)…
This is definitely one of those things that is getting more ridiculous as time goes on. Didn't feel so bad at launch, but now it's got to the point where every single race feels like it's playing out exactly the same. Sometimes I get to make a 2-second decision about running hard/medium instead of medium/hard (usually if I'm towards the back of the grid). The AI is always on the same tire too, making it feel like most of the races are playing out the same way.
I also find it funny that the tire selection is SO limited, that to switch to hard/medium, you can't just swap them (there aren't any spare tires to do that!). You have to first add a third stint, change the first stint to soft, then the second one to hard, the first one to medium and then delete the third stint. Tedious.
Finally, I ended up in a ridiculous situation at Canada the other night on a 50% race: I'd started on medium and had already done my pit stop onto hard. I was running out at the front of the grid in a small group of cars that were a significant distance away from the rest of the pack. 18 laps towards the end we get a safety car, so I decide to gamble on a new set of tires.... But what tires?!
So I had no choice but to keep going. Another set of mediums here would have been perfect and felt like a reasonable gamble. Instead the safety car came and went and nothing changed. Really boring situation to be in.
