No F1 tyre war before 2020 – Hembery

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In the round-up: Formula One will not have a tyre war before the end of the decade, according to Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery.

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No chance of an F1 tyre war this decade (ESPN)

"The tender document has come out and that says a single tyre supplier until the end of 2019."

Ferrari given all-clear after FIA wind tunnel inspection (Motorsport)

"One theory was that Ferrari was making use of extra wind tunnel time through its technical partnership with Haas, and there may even have been sharing of knowledge, personnel or parts."

F1 is 'mentally horrible' - Sainz (Autosport)

"Mentally it's really, really tough to go through all of those switches while at the same time you're trying to save your tyres."

Renault viimeistelee Lotus-kauppoja (Turun Sanomat - Finnish)

More rumours that Renault is seeking a return to F1 as a full constructor by retaking control of the Lotus team, which competed as Renault from 2002 to 2011.

Honda seeking more power for Canada (F1i)

"Asked about the challenge of needing more power in upcoming races, Arai joked: 'Please give me the power!'"

Design in mind: inside the head of an F1 circuit designer (CNN)

"There's so much money around these days. Some multi-millionaire decides he wants a race track or some government decides they want a race track, hard to compete with those. But some of them are quite boring circuits. There's always a good race here."

Starting in F1? Where do you begin? (Crash)

"The 2015 Manor MNR1 and Caterham CT06 designs would be useful as a basis of a project but could not be used directly due to a change of rules around the cockpit area. I hear rumours that there are impending disputes over the IP of both of these designs too. "

1990 Williams-Renault FW13B Formula One Racing Single-Seater (Bonhams)

"Offered direct from the Williams Grand Prix Reserve Collection."

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Comment of the day

The FIA inviting a new team in is all well and good – and definitely what F1 needs – but there’s a snag, and it’s a big one:

Why would any potential new teams want to join now?

Last time, four teams joined, three made it to the grid and we’re now left with one who nearly went out of business, get no television air-time, are in a class of their own at the back of the grid, get next to nothing from FOM and are constantly criticised by the man who basically runs F1.

I honestly cannot see how this could be appeal to anyone unless they have a specific plan to tie in with another team like Haas is doing. Virgin/Marussia/Manor, Lotus/Caterham and HRT have shown that it doesn’t work and until something changes which reduces costs or provides the teams near the bottom with more money (fair sharing of money or more TV time), it’s not going to be any better for anyone joining now.
@Petebaldwin

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On this day in F1

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Keith Collantine
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55 comments on “No F1 tyre war before 2020 – Hembery”

  1. If Renault does to choose to re-enter F1 through Lotus that certainly would be some poetic justice for Red Bull.

    1. sorry, one too many *to*s

    2. That would be fantastic, but you have to question what Renault are even doing. They compete in F1 for a decade, sell off the team, then want to return three years later. It doesn’t make sense at all.

      Also, when they sold it, nobody was happy. There was confusion for ages over who actually owned it, nobody wanted to even call it Lotus, and it was only now when it became clear that they are completely separate, as they have the Mercedes engines. I’m just left with a headache.

      1. So true, it really doesn’t make much sense. The most problems resolved if Renault comes back would be in favor of Lotus.

      2. you have to question what Renault are even doing. They compete in F1 for a decade, sell off the team, then want to return three years later. It doesn’t make sense at all.

        @strontium @bullmello The logic here is, Renault didn’t see a benefit with running in a V10 formula, now that its V6, that is a better fit for their target market. That is probably the key for them.

        1. BJ (@beejis60)
          30th May 2015, 6:01

          @dragoll Especially when they need a new engine every practice session and qualy.

        2. Not to mention that last time they were very much trying to get as much distance between themselves and the team that made their driver crash on purpose when they left @dragoll, @strontium, @bullmello.

          But yes, I think that the current format with the forward looking engine does give them a better platform to use both PR side and development side too.

      3. @strontium Since no one else is saying it: it’s possible that Renault wants to come back under their own banner again to save their image too. Their works team (Red Bull) allegedly demanded design changes and is now attacking them for the setbacks. Not the sort of publicity many companies would want, and ducking out of the sport while disgraced isn’t a great message to investors either.

      4. @strontium I thought it was because of Crashgate, as @bforth alludes to.. @dragoll makes a good point about the V6s.

    3. But what about Lotus’ contract with Mercedes?

      Is it a one year contract?

      Anyway I hope this happens. 5 top teams in F1, that would be crazy.

      1. I’m sure Mercedes would gladly cancel the contract, instead of having Renault guys all over their engines. :)

  2. COTD is bang on, well put.

    Multiple tyre suppliers and refueling are both things which were got rid of for very good reasons, so I’m glad that the tyres will remain single supplier, and it looks increasingly like refuelling isn’t coming back

    1. re:COTD – The request for a new team to join pretty much amounts to being a request for a replacement team for whichever struggling team drops out first. It used to be that potential teams wanted to join F1 and there was no room. That could happen again, but only after the business side of F1 becomes more equitable.

      Agree on tires and I sure hope refueling does not come back. As pointed out, if it changes strategy so little and it certainly increases risk, why bother?

      1. BJ (@beejis60)
        30th May 2015, 6:04

        @bullmello There’s always a risk when you’re competing in sport; that’s why teams decide to compete in the first place. I for one, am for the return of refuelling. It changes up strategy in an otherwise “on track” overtake, if you can call it that

        #DRS4LYYYFFEEEE

    2. @strontium Refuelling makes sense since F1 is made of 300km long races, and since F1 is supposed to be a single seater series why not allow the logical freedom for every team to build their single seater including picking their tyres. F1 is an entity it’s not a show, if F1 ends up boring let it because someone really deserves it rather than the teams strategize and strangehold the sport for the sake of show-business. If you want a spec series watch Indy, F1 though was never intended and never tried to be a spec series if there ever was spec aspects in F1 it was just because everyone wants to run the best tools, and that’s fair what’s not fair is when teams or even suppliers try to keep all the biscuits to themselves. Merc is not going to give the “magic” software mode to their “sister” teams, they sell the PU’s and rack up votes for the teams voting whatever… Last time Michelin was in F1 only the poorer teams were open to use their tyres in 01 except the daring Williams team. Afterwards everyone in the paddock noticed Michelin was the tyre to run but unlike the DFV engine, many teams were barred from being supplied by Michelin, because Michelin wanted to beat someone rather than having all teams running their tyre.

      1. @peartree

        If you want a spec series watch Indy

        Where they have different engines and aerodynamic packages, so expect to be disappointed…

        1. @keithcollantine …It’s not entirely spec, if you are picky, then you might not consider Indy a spec series even if it by design since it’s rebirth…Anyhow engines and kits do boost Indy don’t they? Especially kits, they look nice they run well, but Honda was certainly lucky yesterday. I guess Indy’s move this year really shows that one must commit to a philosophy rather than make half hearted changes. Love the kits even with all the yellow periods, but parity was significantly lost, and Ganassi and Penske just got what they wanted. As of now watching the 2nd Detroit.

  3. I’d advise Renault to stick with the Mercedes engines…

    1. OmarR-Pepper - Vettel 40 victories!!! (@)
      30th May 2015, 0:50

      @bullfrog hahaha!!!!!! That would be epic!

  4. So they sent a guy the used to work at Ferrari to investigate Ferrari. Right, ok. I presume we’re all going to talk about Hamilton ot tyres instead of this?

    1. That same guy used to work for McLaren too and is a professional appointed because he’s good at his job and knowledgeable; he wasn’t sent on his own but rather with a team of other technical delegates and how could you even think he would just cover up for them?… Quit the conspiracy theories

      1. Fair point. Sorry, got a little carried away yesterday evening with my comments. They could have sent two people though couldn’t they!?

    2. I guess he knows the way so is best suited to check, right @john-h. Well, you have a point there Lenny, but honestly I doubt that unless they would find a smoking gun kind of evidence the FIA ware never likely to punish Ferrari.

      1. Indeed @bascb. Yep, went a little overboard there. My bad.

      2. To be honest why punish Ferrari if they are the only thing that makes this season exciting/interesting to watch by actually being able to compete with Mercedes?
        It made the sport interesting and they investigate it because they made a significant gain?
        I think this sport just needs to shut up the moaning drivers(Hamilton), gets the regulations sorted and open and finally reduce costs but allow freedom of choice in things like tyres, refueling etc.
        Imagine a F1 car that needed to refuel competing against a car that didn’t but was slower but only needed to pit once but still completing the whole race in the same time roughly. Is that not something to think about?

  5. Tyre war will never happen as long as F1 is still making money for Bernie and Co. because tyre makers are not going to pay FOM to supply tyres without a guarantee of success, only if F1 is losing credibility to the extent that Bernie has to beg for a supplier will another tyre war take place.

  6. That race 5 years ago had me hooked on F1 the whole year. I couldn’t stop thinking about it!

    By far the best season I’ve ever seen. Not in terms of races (some were very good) but the whole season fight for the championship between 5 guys, 3 teams.

  7. The only way anybody would want to join F1 is if they have a similar strategy to Haas. Not so much from a wide technical partnership perspective, but a commercial one. Haas has been pretty clear upfront, he will use F1 to promote his brand, he feels that the platform is still relevant with respect to brand recognition.

    A privateer entrant who just wants to go racing has no chance. Those days are over and until the current folk who run F1 is flushed out, don’t hope of it changing any time soon.

    It would be interesting to see, if any, who actually joins next year. Chances are, they would probably be a group of individuals with serious money to burn, for fun.

  8. That onboard footage of Sainz put my heart in my throat. The reaction time involved is staggering. Good catch Carlos! That would have overshadowed the Verstappen/Grosjean incident, because the delta was so big. Whew!

    1. You’re right, Sainz would have looked very silly if that one went wrong. The save reminds me of Massa’s pass on Bruno Senna at Singapore a few years back:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfAf-t5lxO4

    2. @ferrox-glideh Yeah, very amazing, yet they didn’t even show it in the GP broadcast.. !

      1. ColdFly F1 (@)
        30th May 2015, 9:00

        @fastiesty, maybe Sainz took it with his smartphone.

        PS is it mandatory at Toro Rosso to put emojicons in every tweet?

        1. @coldfly It was showed on Canal Plus during their on-board highlights episode. I always love that TV program, specially in Monaco where everything is so close.

          1. agree @key75, its a great feature.

    3. @ferrox-glideh while it was a great catch, he’s not exactly correct in his tweet when he says that he didn’t hit him. Because he did hit Ericsson, and lost a piece of his front wing in the process.

      1. @ferrox-glideh @mattds Yes, but it does show just how much luck is involved in these crashes. Had Verstappen been half a wheel to the right, and Sainz been half a wheel to the left, we would be having a very different conversation and a completely different outcome to the race.

        What I am saying here, is that in many ways you could argue that Sainz deserves as much criticism as Verstappen, but by chance, he didn’t have an accident.

  9. Nice little interview with Montreal’s circuit designer, would love to see a longer interview with him.

    1. @andae23 Personally I the interview itself quite pointless, but it is undoubtedly recognised as the favourite track on the calendar for both fanatics and casual viewers. It almost never produces a boring race, and has in fact produced some of the most exciting races in F1 history, has been the scene of some of the most dramatic moments in F1, and is a layout in a location loved by almost everybody.

      If I were that man I would be very proud.

  10. If Renault buy back Lotus, where does that leave Red Bull? They’re going to be relegated as Renault’s customer team, I mean even more so than now. I doubt Mercedes wants to supply a team who could potentially beat the, same goes for Ferrari.

    1. Honda?

      1. ColdFly F1 (@)
        30th May 2015, 9:02

        never! (at least not for a long long time)

    2. Good question. I guess they can stay on as customers of Renault. Or maybe they get a cossy engine and find someone to brand it? Or they quit? Unless they do manage to lure Audi in off course.

      I think that Mercedes have already clearly stated that they have no interest in supplying RBR with engines at all. And I seriously doubt that the Honda-McLaren partnership allows for a team like RBR to join in on the party there either. Ferrari is unlikely to be keen on supplying them too.

    3. I can’t see any other option than for Red Bull to just be a Renault customer team, as they were when they ran Renault engines while Renault had its own works team in 2007-2011. It might not sit entirely well with Horner and Co, but something needs to change with Renault’s involvement in F1.

      We may as well stop talking about Audi, I really don’t see them coming in for a long time. McLaren-Honda seems to be a very close partnership (ART possibly a future B-team for them in F1), so I don’t think it’s viable for Honda to supply Red Bull while they have this partnership with McLaren, as @bascb says. I don’t think Red Bull is the sort of team Mercedes or Ferrari would want to supply as it could come back to bite their own works teams.

  11. Today is the day, five years ago, that I started following Formula 1. The two McLarens, at that time my favourite team, getting a one-two was a dream for me. In the five years that I have seen F1 change, I have changed favourite teams, drivers and personalities around the paddock. But the one thing that doesn’t change is the undying passion that I have generated for F1, then motorsport as a whole. One thing that continually bothered me during all these years, was how easy it is for F1 fans to be perturbed by simple things, simple changes. It almost is like F1 fans cannot handle or cope with change. The Pirelli tyres were lambasted, DRS was a hindrance for everybody, even KERS got slack. In my humble opinion, the only thing wrong with the sport is the fans suggesting innumerable changes and the rule-makers implementing innumerable changes, in the end none of them co-operating. Bernie criticizes the fans, and the fans criticize Bernie, there is no end to this. What came as a welcome change was the global fan survey which really shows how important fans are, collectively.
    Anyway, here’s to another five years of this wonderful sport!

    1. Not to argue with your opinion because it is what it is, but Pirelli tires were lambasted particularly when they were exploding, and otherwise we all know Pirelli and all tire makers can make better tires but are mandated not to by F1. DRS is highly unpopular due to it causing fake passing that will never make for memorable events that will go down in the annuls of F1 history.

      So just don’t mistake criticism as being an inability to handle or cope with change when some of us have been watching for going on 5 decades, and know what we would prefer in the pinnacle of racing. Changes, big or small, aren’t always good just because they are changes.

      1. I dont comment much here but felt obliged to reply to this interaction….. Trayambak: foor someone who has only watched f1 for 5 years your comments are particularly insightful… I tend to agree…. People are complaining for not much good reason… What is happening now has happened tbroughout the history of f1… The big DRS debate….. Yes, i tend to think it devalues passes somewhat but it was and is a good answer to the problems it was created to solve. I M O i think the only thing that needs to be sorted is the distribution of money to teams. Good obvservations Trayambak

  12. I read things like “no tyre war until 2020” and feel like it should be a life time away, how did we get so close to 2020? The new millenium just started!

    1. Lol, very well observed!

    2. @broke84

      The real shocker is that 2030 is just as close as 2000!

  13. What if Renault are coming back in and they’re giving Red Bull and Toro Rosso crap engines this year to hide how strong they’ll be next year?
    http://www.conspiracykeanu.com/post/21503610962/wrestlers

  14. It’s going to be interesting to see what way Renault goes. It’s pretty clear their current involvement in F1 isn’t healthy for them, mind their feud with Red Bull has quietened down the last couple of months, unless I’ve missed something.

    Lotus would be a strange move given they have just switched to Mercedes engines. I really thought that move put the nail in the coffin of Enstone’s Renault links. I think Mercedes would want to keep supplying them as they can place a young driver there in the future. Given Lotus was Renault as recently as 2011, it would be quite a turn of events for it to become Renault again.

    Toro Rosso is still probably more realistic, and I kind of hope it they buy them rather than Lotus, but either way it would be good to see the yellow cars back on the grid. Maybe as soon as 2016?

    1. @deej92 It would be rather ironic to see Renault competing against what used to be their own team though. That said, the same goes for Honda competing with Mercedes now.

      1. Very true. I still find it quite remarkable how Honda and Mercedes have swapped bases in just seven years.

        Team Enstone vs Renault would be quite something. I’m seeing more rumours of Renault buying Genii Capital out and regaining Lotus though. I’m sure we’ll find out soon.

  15. petebaldwin (@)
    31st May 2015, 18:49

    People only want a tyre war because it’ll be the end of tyres that fall apart. You couldn’t have a tyre war with this type of tyre because one would always make slightly more durable tyres than the other.

    I’m happy with Pirelli – they were give a really tough job to make tyres that are intentionally rubbish and they’ve only have a few issues along the way. They’ve pretty much nailed making rubbish tyres now which is what F1 (including the fans initially on the back of Canada) asked them to do.

    The solution is simply to say “Ok Pirelli – you’ve had some bad PR over the last couple of years so now, make the best F1 tyre you can and show everyone what you can do with free reign.

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