Jun.3 (GMM) A tyre war has been ruled out in formula one at least for the next four seasons.
Pirelli and, it seems, Michelin have both put their names forward for the newly-announced tender process to identify the sport’s official supplier beyond 2016.
And according to Pirelli’s Paul Hembery, the tender document says F1 “will have a single tyre supplier until the end of 2019” at least, he was quoted by Brazil’s Totalrace.
The news comes despite some in F1, including Fernando Alonso, believing a tyre war would be one way to take the sport back to the thrilling days of a decade ago.
But the F1 teams are not keen.
Franz Tost, boss of Toro Rosso, said tyre wars usually mean “Two teams get the good tyres and the rest get the scraps”.
“When Michelin was in,” he recalled, “it (the favoured Michelin team) was Renault, therefore Alonso has good memories”.
And Hembery said Tost’s sentiments are shared widely among his colleagues.
“I think the teams want the situation to stay as it is (with one supplier),” he said, “and we have nothing to add to that.”
