JULY 1, 2004

Michelin proposes F1 changes

The French tyre company Michelin has announced what it thinks would be a good solution to reduce the operating costs of Formula 1 by more than 50%. The company says that it would be happy to supply one one set of tyres which will be used for qualifying and the race. There would be between two and four sets of tyres available to a driver each weekend, of one or two different types. All teams woul get the same specification tyres and would have to work around the problems and there would be six sets of tyres per team for each test day and Michelin recommends a drastic reduction in testing during the F1 season.

"We believe that the FIA's objectives can be met by implementing these proposals," says Michelin Competition Director, Pierre Dupasquier. "Firstly, to be able to provide tyres that last much longer, we will be obliged to use much harder compounds, which in turn will be less grippy, thus reducing speeds. Secondly, to seriously reduce costs, testing must be limited. This can be complemented by providing fewer tyres, so the amount of testing would be further reduced. I'm sure there can be a saving in Teams' operational costs of over 50%. And finally, these hard tyres will leave less rubber on the track, making the dirty line a thing of the past and therefore encouraging overtaking, something everybody around F1 wants."