JUNE 23, 2010

Pirelli lands F1 tyre deal

Pirelli has landed the deal as F1's sole tyre supplier for three years beginning in 2011, following a meeting of the FIA World Council in Geneva today.

Pirelli has landed the deal as F1's sole tyre supplier for three years beginning in 2011, following a meeting of the FIA World Council in Geneva today.

The Italian company was last in F1 in 1991 and will replace Bridgestone, which leaves the sport at the end of the year. The FIA announcement says that the sole supplier will "undertake to strictly respect the sporting and technical regulations implemented by the FIA."

A bulletin from the governing body has also confirmed that a proposal relating to specific licences for members of staff of competitors entered in the championships has been submitted to the Formula One Commission and is under consideration for adoption in F1 next year and other FIA championships in future.

The background to the initiative is the Renault 'crashgate' saga in 2008 and the subsequent contested bans handed down to Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds. If adopted, it will give the governing body more control over team employees.

As promised following the Michael Schumacher incident at Monaco, the Safety Car rules have also been revised.

With immediate effect, no car may overtake until it has passed the first safety car line for the first time when the safety car is returning to the pits. However, if the safety car is still deployed at the beginning of the last lap, or is deployed during the last lap, it will enter the pit lane at the end of the lap and the cars will take the chequered flag as normal without overtaking.

The 107% qualifying rule is also back for 2011. Any driver whose best qualifying lap exceeds 107% of the fastest Q1 qualifying time will not be allowed to take part in the race unless exceptional circumstances apply, such as setting a suitable lap time in a free practice session.

There was a degree of controversy at the start of the season when some teams thought it was inappropriate to be lured into the spoort on the promise of budget caps, then expected to comply with 107% rules when the caps did not materialise. Others, however, felt the 107% rule was necessary to maintain standards. As it is, F1's new teams, Lotus Racing, Virgin Racing and HRT, would not be threatened by the 107% rule.