SEPTEMBER 9, 2003

A compromise in the tire battle

The FIA met with representatives of Michelin and the McLaren and Williams teams on Monday and after being shown examples of the new Michelin tires before and after use, confirmed that it believes that these tires will comply with the rules as long as they are used in the same way at the Italian GP as they were in testing.

The FIA said that as far as it is concerned "the matter is now closed and the Championship can continue with all teams on an equal footing."

It will now be interesting to see what effect the change has made to the Michelin runners both in terms of overall grip and the consistency of the tyres.

The FIA, incidentally, made the point that the rules have not been changed nor even reinterpreted as the maximum tread width rule has been unchanged since 1999.