In March, the FIA opened a tender for tire suppliers for the 2025-2027 Formula 1 seasons. The winner will also supply tires for Formula 2 and Formula 3. Along with the news of the upcoming tender often comes nostalgia for the wars of tires, about how, they say, it was good when Bridgestone and Michelin were fighting, and before Bridgestone and Goodyear.
At the end of 2020, Lewis Hamilton, already disappointed with the tires for the upcoming season, mocked Pirelli: “I miss the tire wars in Formula 1. I think it was great.”
Now we will explain why such wars are not necessary for modern F-1. Well, or at least impossible.
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The unspoken championship
Despite the fact that the struggle of the tire workers really added an element of unpredictability, sometimes the rubber manufacturers pulled the blanket too high: the outcome of the championship depended only on them.
For example, in 2006, before the Turkish Grand Prix, Coulthard, Raikkonen, Button and Monteiro were asked who would take the title: Schumacher or Alonso. The riders agreed that the German and the Spaniard had an equal chance of winning, so whoever had the best tires would be the champion. “I think a lot depends on the tyres. If the car is reliable, then it all depends on the tire manufacturer, ”Jenson Button noted then.
Of course, everyone remembers the tire scandal at the 2005 US Grand Prix, when only six cars started. The rest of the cars, shod with Michelin, stayed in the pits after the warm-up lap, precisely out of despair: the French tires were not designed for the maximum speed of the final curve of the track and they exploded. The advice on safe performance was mocking: change tires, conditionally, every 10 laps.
That tire scandal in Indianapolis:
Local time: Michelin failure and 6 cars at the US start.
At whose expense is the banquet?
In addition to having too much of an impact on the bottom line, a return to the tire war is not economically viable. A monopolist can work at his own pace, whereas in a competitive environment it would be necessary to upgrade the tires every race weekend. According to the head of Pirelli’s racing division, Mario Isola, this would triple costs, which is especially expensive in the current Formula 1 business model: teams used to pay for tires, now the contractors themselves pay for their participation in the championship.
Esteban Okon’s recent tire feat
This hasn’t happened in F1 for 24 years! The whole race – non-stop, it could all have ended in an accident
Some large manufacturers do not want to enter the sport even in more favorable monopoly conditions – what can we say about a situation where you have to spend much more, and if you lose to a competitor, you will not receive PR, but only criticism. ?
Michelin’s French have repeatedly spoken out against returning to the championship. “We have been negotiating for a long time, but we have not reached an agreement. They say that the show needs tires that self-destruct, and we don’t know how to do it,” said the head of the company, Florent Menego.
Pirelli engineers work with rubber
Photo: Mark Thompson/Getty Images
From the “cliff” to the regulation
The FIA explains what it wants to put on the cars: “The requirements are designed to allow a wide operational range of tyres, minimize tire overheating and reduce wear, but at the same time allow a change in strategy” – the latest The point about strategy diversity is the most interesting.
Year after year, Pirelli is tasked with developing tires whose performance ends abruptly at the end of their life cycle, forcing them to pit. The word “cliff” in the phrase “performance cliff” has been found in the foreign press for almost 10 years when it comes to rubber performance in Formula 1. All for the sake of show business, but these are requests from the FIA. And the same “Michelin” is not ready for this.
Michelin tire after the 2005 British Grand Prix
Photo: Mark Thompson/Getty Images
The return of the legend
Throughout the history of Formula 1, cars have been driven by tires from nine different manufacturers. Goodyear has the most race starts and victories, but next year the statistics will change in favor of Pirelli, which was the first to respond to the tender: the Italians do not plan to say goodbye to Formula. The first three in terms of number of races held is Bridgestone, which also participates in the bidding.
The return of the Japanese to the championship is quite probable; however, Firestone’s subsidiary branding may be used, as F-1 is now actively conquering the US market.
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There are fans who believe that with the advent of “Bridgestone” the problem of thermal wear of tires will be solved – the current rubber is “killed” by overheating, and not by asphalt. Since 2011, Pirelli has been scratching their heads over thermal wear. And it seems logical that only the Japanese can solve this problem, because they were the ones who laid the foundations for this “disgrace” with their departure from F-1. However, when the Bridgestone tires were last used, the cars were 200kg lighter and generated less downforce. Then the engineers of Japan would have to seriously adapt – a lot of prior knowledge was simply depreciated.
As for the tire wars… They will remain a hallmark of the late ’90s/early ’00s era, because Formula has no plans to move away from monopoly this decade. In the end, even now, without competition, the tires are still an important factor: who will heat up the wheels so quickly in qualifying, who will work with them more competently in the race, who, globally speaking, will create the perfect suspension. and select the optimal settings…
The only question is which tire puzzle from which country will engineers have to solve in 2025: from Italy or from Japan.
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