Rubber as a material has been known to humankind for thousands of years, initially used by the native South Americans and observed by Cortez in the 1520's and then brought to Europe as a "curiosity" by explorers in the 1750's. So it might surprise engineers in the Formula 1 industry and beyond that this very traditional substance still has properties that cannot be matched by more "modern" and exotic materials, although of course, starting with the work of Charles Goodyear and Charles Mackintosh in the 1850's, the chemistry of "rubber" and its oil based synthetic derivatives has dramatically progressed over the years.  It is the case that thermoplastics,...
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