JULY 22, 2004

Sauber and Michelin

There has been a lot of talk in recent weeks about the tyre contracts for next year with lots of rumours of teams switching to Bridgestone and stories about Sauber switching to Michelin.

Felipe Massa, Spanish GP 2004
© The Cahier Archive

There has been a lot of talk in recent weeks about the tyre contracts for next year with lots of rumours of teams switching to Bridgestone and stories about Sauber switching to Michelin. The fact that there are rumours of moves both ways would seem to indicate that the level of performance of the tyres is fairly closely-matched and that any change is more likely to be related to politics or money.

Michelin currently supplies six of the 10 teams and does not have to take on another although obviously it is good for the image of the French tyre manufacturer to have rumours about that another team wants to join the Michelin fold. Sauber has been on Bridgestones for five years and is coming up for a renewal of that contract but it is hard to imagine that Sauber will be seen racing on Michelins because of the team's close links with Ferrari, Bridgestone's main team.