JULY 4, 2004

Tyre politics

We hear that there is a certain amount of pushing and shoving going on in F1 circles at the moment over tyre supply in the future with some of the six Michelin teams looking at whether or not to do deals with Bridgestone in the future. We have heard that as many of four of the six Michelin teams have been in contact with Bridgestone asking about the future and the Japanese are obliged, if called upon to do so, must supply at least one extra team and could be forced to take on two more. While Bridgestone's race tyres have a problem in the first few laps they are very strong and consistent although the performance of everyone other than Ferrari has not been very impressive this year.

If performance is not the primary motivation behind the talk, it is probable that some of the Michelin teams are pushing for better deals with the French tyre company which does not pay the teams to test tyres. Bridgestone it seems has invested considerably more in his respect.