Comments on: Bridgestone to make surprise F1 exit

By: taurus

taurus — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:17:28 +0000

Bring back ‘yellow’ Goodyears please!!

By: D.B.

D.B. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:04:50 +0000

Keith, Dieter Rencken explains the tyre suppliers plight perfectley in Autosport online.

http://www.autosport.com/features/article.php/id/2478

By: HounslowBusGarage

HounslowBusGarage — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:33:00 +0000

First big test of Jean Todt, init?
“What are we going to race on, Jean?”
“Errr, let me just ask my boy Michael . . .”

By: HounslowBusGarage

HounslowBusGarage — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:29:48 +0000

It’s not about loyalty, it’s about money, and it seems that Formula 1 is too expensive.

I think that’s about right with that. But at the end of your first para you say “Formula 1 didn’t generate the amount of exposure / income . . .” and I think I’d change that to “exposure/income/feeling of success”.
I don’t necessarily think that Mercedes derive a lot of exposure or income from their MacLaren or Brawn involvement, but I *do* think they gain a lot of satisfaction and good feeling about themselves – particularly in relation to their real expenditure. And while the main car producing business continues to be profitable (and the shareholders don’t bleat) they will continue.

By: inc0mmunicado

inc0mmunicado — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:08:13 +0000

I don’t think that makes any sense, are you living in 2004?

The McLaren mp4-19 raced in 2004….

By: Derek

Derek — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:55:08 +0000

Toyota is gone now too! So the ex-BMW Team should get back into the sport. But what would happen if no tyre suppliers came forward for 2011?? They would have to nip down to Kwik Fit.

By: wasiF1

wasiF1 — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:17:18 +0000

Unfortunate.Will Goodyear be back in F1 or as Michelin doesn’t want sole performance Perilli may be in F1.

By: PinballLes

PinballLes — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:55:54 +0000

I don’t think it’s fair to imply that BMW and Honda left because they did not have skill and racing expertise. Both companies have extensive motor racing history. I’d say they left Formula 1 because being involved in Formula 1 didn’t generate the amount of exposure / income that they required.

With the same amount of cash used for Formula 1 these companies can now spread that cash across different categories, and different events, and marketing campaigns and get a better bang for buck then they would have in Formula 1. Same goes for Bridgestone, and Toyota which has today announced that they are pulling out (http://axisofoversteer.blogspot.com/2009/11/japan-calls-it-quits-on-f1.html).

It’s not about loyalty, it’s about money, and it seems that Formula 1 is too expensive.

By: The Limit

The Limit — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:59:47 +0000

If it is true about Bridgestone’s huge expenses being the reason for them pulling out, then I am surprised and disgusted in equal measure. I have to admit that I was never a fan of the tyre war between Michelin and Bridgestone which if anything damaged the sport in so many ways.
However, as others have mentioned on this post, the so called ‘going green’ excuse for dumping Formula One is getting abit tired now. If anything, the disastrous investment in KERS has proven that the ‘green’ approach may work well selling a brand new coupe, but not so well in producing fast race cars.
The one good thing about the economic downturn is that Formula One is finding out who their true friends our, and which organisations are committed and the ones which are not. The world has been in the doldrums before during F1’s existence, yet teams like Ferrari for example have remained loyal and have been rewared for that loyalty.
The thing is that companies such as BMW and Honda, and now Bridgestone will lose a huge amount of exposure by leaving the worlds second most watched sport globally after football.
Those are cold, hard facts. Facts that are far more damaging to BMW and Honda, who millions of us now know left because they could not ‘buy’ success in a sport based on skill and ‘racing’ expertise.
My money is on Goodyear. A return to slicks in 2009, and return to Goodyear in 2010. This sport really has gone full circle.

By: Polak

Polak — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:25:18 +0000

I don’t think this would work. Often times there is only one compound that works best for all the teams. This means that at some races someone will eventually say the *enter tire manufacturer’s name* was rubbish. Not good for marketing since the manufacturer didn’t have much control over their tire being good on a particular circuit.

By: Dane

Dane — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:31:11 +0000

I agree, get rid of the prime/option tyres, and just have 1 tyre for the season for dry, inters, wet.

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:32:00 +0000

It wasn’t intended as anti-Bridgestone but I do think Michelin got a raw deal.

By: Hallard

Hallard — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:36:03 +0000

I think the main reason for that is that the suspension of an F1 car has VERY LITTLE compliance (they are sprung for huge aero loads) so the tires need to have additional “cushion”, if you will, to make the cars drivable.

By: Bigbadderboom

Bigbadderboom — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:12:02 +0000

No great loss providing we get another outfit to replace them.
2,3 or 4 Tyre manufacturers would make the economic proposal of supplying the grid more viable, but would it ruin the championship and reduce it to a best tyre development competition. Probably not, as we have found with aerodynamic solutions this year, with the reduction of aero grip and the greater reliability on mechanical grip, individual properties of components and cars become much more sensative to individual tracks. This for me is what would happen with tyres, and it would be up to the teams collaboration with the tyre suppliers to hit upon the happy medium which would give optimum performance over the greater number of tracks. This would see a far greater variance in race results and may even help the new teams. I think the FIA should open up the tyre regulations and allow teams to select their prefered supplier. HOWEVER it must be properly regulated with clear and transparent rules, or the teams will end up in all kinds of accusations and appeals. FOTA could play a critical role in this.

By: Mussolini's Pet Cat

Mussolini's Pet Cat — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:36:44 +0000

I wonder if the Korean outfit, Hankook might step in. They already do some motorsport and provide OEM tyres in the UK for Audi. Great advertising for them.

By: Sean

Sean — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:21:23 +0000

Personally I never forgave Bridgestone for showing up at Suzuka in 2000, the title decider, with a single hard compound, after a year of supporting a softer one that suited the McLaren and a harder one which suited Ferrari. It was a cynical calculation at the dawn of the era of Ferrari domination (and the end of their 18 year famine), that a Ferrari-Bridgestone title had more commercial value to BS than just another one of those McLaren-Bridgestone or Williams-Bridgestone ones. McLaren and several others correctly concluded that they were on a hiding to nothing with that company, and signed deals with Michelin, and Bridgestone became a provider of bespoke tyres tuned to Ferrari’s chassis, for several years. It was one of several factors that gave us Ferrari domination to 2004 (not least of which was the ruling against Michelin in 2003) which huge swing of the pendulum led to the panic measures of 2005 and the single tyre compound. It’s worth remembering that you always reap what you sow, and that era was not solely the result of the brilliance of the Todt/ Brawn/ MS combination, or even bent FIA rulings in general.

Bridgestone was never to blame for the debacle at Indy in 2005, but the FIA’s use of it to pillory and eventually drive out Michelin clearly reflected the FIA’s strong preference for Bridgestone and it also left a sour taste in my mouth.

There’s something of a delicious irony that Bridgestone’s cold commercial interests are now best served by severing ties with the FIA and F1 altogether, leaving the latter looking for a supplier which will no doubt negotiate on its own terms.

For these reasons as well as the fact that I try to boycott F1 products in general (I don’t like to support the Bernie/ Todt-Mosley-Donnelly/ Tilke et al cabal any more than I absolutely have to), I have not bought a Bridgestone tyre since 2001 and have actively sought and used Pirelli, Michelin and BF Goodrich ones instead (this was recently at its most challenging when I found that BS supposedly had the best performing tyre for the money, according to survey results, but I cut off my nose to spite my face and stuck with my boycott, and I’m very happy with the tyres I have). I’m thinking of writing an open letter to Bridgestone explaining that their exit of F1 actually now makes me a potential Bridgestone customer again, rather than the reverse, and there might be others like me.

By: Gerald

Gerald — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:18:24 +0000

When is Formula One going to get Formula one tires.
No other racing series races on tires like these. Formula One tires are ballons. I think even Nascar races on lower profile tires than Formula One. If this is the most technologically advanced racing serious in the world what are they doing racing on tires that were last seen on 1960 era cars.
I will concede that the “innards” of the tires are technologically up to date, however no other series runs on tires with any where near this kind of profile. My 1965 Porsche has tires with a lower profile than Formula One tires.

By: AP

AP — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:21:20 +0000

why couldn’t Williams couldn’t win a race or had a hard time to podium while the Renault on same rubber wdc..

Or better still why didn’t Minardi win a race constructors championship, I mean they had same rubber as Ferrari.

I’m very keen to see tyre wars again.

By: DC

DC — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:08:06 +0000

I don’t think they pay for tyres either. At Suzuka the teams were complaining about running in the wet during practice and said they couldn’t because of limited tyres. When questioned, the Bridgestone rep said it was budget issues.

Q: (Joris Fioriti – AFP) To all of you: we all want Formula One to gain an audience but when it’s raining drivers don’t run. It’s quite strange, it doesn’t happen in other sports. Are you quite ashamed of what happened today? They paid 200 Euros for their seats and they didn’t see any cars…
CH: I think one of the things it would be nice to address for next year and maybe Hiroshi can help us on this is that we are a bit limited on wet tyres, so we’re saving them up for the rest of the weekend, because there’s a good chance that there’s a bit of rain tomorrow. If Hiroshi’s a bit more generous with his tyres then you might see a bit more of us on the track on a wet Friday.
HY: It’s a big problem. Our budget is also limited, so we have to strike a balance. Anyhow, our responsibility is that we have to supply equal treatment for everybody. And also, our position is very, very tough. Actually, our main business is selling our tyres for cars but if the car business is very bad, in this case we are not selling which means that we cannot make any profit. Nowadays our board members are very tough on me. I have been doing this business a very long time, so I understand the balance required, so at some stage we need to find a good compromise.

He also mentioned that they got free signs at the tracks and of course on the podium the drivers wore Bridgestonr hats for publicity.

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2009/10/10030.html

By: Ronman

Ronman — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:06:56 +0000

I always hated bridge-stone for forcing the different compound concept…

I usually also prefer one supplier supplying one Tyre (dry)… for the simple fact of making F1 about the drivers and the cars, and not about which compound is better. i admit it does add an element to the races, but F1 is not about the type of tire used. often we’ve seen the best man, in the best machine not do his best because the race specific tires do not suit the tarmac or the car…

therefore i call on 1 or more suppliers delivering the same exact compound on all races to all teams. the only different tires should be intermediates and wets. i would also like to see teams limited to one pit-stop per race. meaning that they should change tires at least once/race just to keep the mechanics working on beautiful pit stops.

i guess what i want is a return to the glory days of Good Year. I liked their little yellow logo….