F1 BLOG

I have only one thing to say about the return of slick tires in F1. Yes!

It’s always seemed to me a bit odd to have such a single purpose machine as an F1 race car forced to run on grooved tires. Three cheers for the return of slick tires to F1.

Bring back slick tires, get rid of traction control and drivers aids, go back to manual shifting and then maybe we’ll be back to seeing who are the really skilled drivers.

It looks like Bridgestone will be marking the soft compound used in Melbourne this week but not with a pretty red stripe. Bridgestone has elected to go with a “White Dot” that will be 3 centimetres in diameter.

Bridgestone is also pointing out that this may change after the Melbourne race.

I’d really rather see a bold red stripe instead of a little white dot and while they are at it how about some nice chrome hub caps!

For the 2007 Formula One season Bridgestone will be making only 4 tire compounds for dry weather. These tires will be designated as “Hard”, “Medium”, “Soft” and “Super Soft”.

For each race two of these compounds will be selected and each team will be required to run at least one set from each of the two different compounds during the course of the actual race.

It would also appear that the pretty red stripe that was proposed to indicate the softer compound tire will not be happening this season as too many of the teams were concerned it would give away their tire strategy to their competitors which could put them at a disadvantage.

I kinda wanted to see the pretty red stripes because as everyone knows, stripes on things make them go faster!!!

Just about 3 weeks to go now until the first race …

The Red Tire rule and single tire supplier issues continue.

It looks like the latest issue is a fear that teams will know each others tire plans before the start of the race. This is apparently the reason for the resistance to the red stripe indicating which type of tire is being used.

The latest rumor is that teams would be required to publish their initial tire choice just after the start of the race. I guess this somehow prevents other teams from knowing what tires you will be on at the start of the race.

What I’m really wondering is just how much this really matters. Presumably a team chooses their optimum tire strategy for a race and sets their car up for that plan. Is it a realistic concern that any team would suddenly change their tire choice and rework their car setup and race strategy when they find out what tire compound another team is using? Personally I think that is unlikely to produce a good result for the team.

Both Red Bull Racing drivers, David Coulthard and Mark Webber, have said that they think the new tire regulation requiring teams to run both tire compounds during a race is “Silly”.

Coulthard and Webber have serious doubts that it will achieve the intended result of a more interesting race. I have to admit that I figured it might have a positive impact in this regard but they make some good points.

The Red Bull drivers feel that every team will do exactly the same thing which is run your quickest tires first and then put your slowest set on for the end of the race. The reasoning is that so little passing happens at the end of the race that the tire change will be of little impact. The impact is further reduced by the fact that all the teams will do exactly the same thing.

Coulthard also seems a little bitter in his parting shot on this matter ..

“But, you know, what the drivers say about that is absolutely not important…”

Fair enough David, but if the change makes no difference then what are you complaining about?