DECEMBER 7, 1998
More tire wars
Last week Bridgestone wrote to the F1 teams saying that it would make no more tires available until arrangements had been agreed with the FIA and a meeting was organized to solve the problem. The teams have agreed to accept a limitation of testing to just 50 days a year, but do not want to be forced to go testing where Bridgestone dictates.
While it looks as though a solution will be found for the immediate testing problems, there are also expected to be discussions about the long-term direction of tire development with Bridgestone arguing that there should be all-weather tires to cut costs and reduce expenditure. This would enable tire companies to produce road tires which look similar to those used on the racing cars.