Formula 1 BLOG

It looks like Bridgestone, the only supplier of Formula one tires for 2007 is willing to go ahead with the plans to place a red stripe on the sidewall of the soft compound tires for F1 next season.

This system is currently used by the Champ Car series and is said to provide more excitement as the fans can see which cars are running the soft tires and which are not at any point in the race.

Bridgestone claims that this may be a bit of a headache for them because the “Soft” compound at one track may be the “Hard” compound at another so they may end up having to make “Red Stripe” tires and “no stripe” tires in the same compound and shuffle them around depending on the track.

Another interesting fact is that Bridgestone will not be doing tire development throughout the season. When there were two suppliers they would each strive to improve their tires from race to race but with only one supplier there will be a range of tires / compounds at the start of the season and they will remain the same for the whole season according to Bridgestone.

I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing for F1.

What do you folks think ?