A high ranking Bridgestone engineer has played down as speculation suggestions that a ‘red-tyre rule’ could be imposed in F1 next year.
Bridgestone’s Kees van der Grint, a Dutchman who with the departure of technical manager Hisao Suganuma has been promoted for the 2007 season, answered coyly when asked if the Champ Car-style regulation was on the verge of being introduced to spice up F1’s one-tyre era.
“It is just speculation,” he told the Dutch magazine Formule 1 Race Report, adding that the issue is in the hands of the governing body.
Japanese marque Bridgestone, however, is understood to be keen on the idea of colouring red the sidewall of ‘option’ tyres from 2007 in order to distinguish them from the harder tyre on offer at each GP.
The rule would then make it compulsory for drivers to use both colours of tyres during a race.
“As we speak there has been no request (from the FIA) for us to implement that (rule),” van der Grint revealed, adding that launching the regulation would be logistically difficult.
The introduction of a new sporting regulation for 2007 would also require the unlikely unanimous agreement of all eleven competing teams.
GMMF1
DailyF1News.com
