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[What's Burning?]

With Bridgestone seemingly not coming back I'm curious as to what may happen in 2011 and if it will be seen as an opportunity to differentiate/diversify the tire suppliers like it used to be. I'd like to see that. I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but when I go tire shopping what I purchase is somewhat influenced by what I see on the track even though I know that what's on my car is light years removed from an F1 car.

[JamesD89]

Haha, I knew someone would buy those green stripe soft compound replicas.

Who's in line to take their place? There's only ever been Bridgestone, Goodyear + Michelin for as long as I've been watching. I'd much rather see the tyre influence return to how it used to be, giving teams a choice between supplier and shelving this "you must use both compounds in a race rule".

[EwanM]

Kuhmo and Hancook are rumoured to be the companies interested in taking the contract on.

Maybe the FIA can enforce special terms to make the tyres more on the edge?

[What's Burning?]

Kuhmo and Hancook are rumoured to be the companies interested in taking the contract on.

Maybe the FIA can enforce special terms to make the tyres more on the edge?

That's the problem, a tire that's more on edge, can be perceived to be inferior by a consumer especially like it's happened in the past where most of the grid can't race on a particular track because the tire they contracted with is deemed unsafe. I think more than any other F1 equipment supplier, Tire manufactures get the most benefit for their involvement both in R&D and in consumer perception.

[Jamie]

[headless]

[JamesD89]

:scratchchin:

If the FIFA World Cup had eyes... the top half would look just like that

[vaptin]

I wonder what you would all make of opening up the regulations completely? A team can use any tire it wants, for as much as it wants etc. We might see some ultra soft compounds in the race v some ultra hard compounds?

[7UpJordan]

Get Goodyear, Pirelli or Michelin back.

[headless]

Get Goodyear, Pirelli or Michelin back.

[What's Burning?]

Get Goodyear, Pirelli or Michelin back.

Michelin were one of the ones looking to get in but only if allowed to push a green eco agenda. Talk about a green stripe huh? It looks like Bridgestone is leaving solely for cost reasons, and scaling back the amount of rubber handed out per race weekend from 14 to 11 sets was one of the things implemented to cut costs, the consensus seems to be people want more than one tire brand on the grid.

[VeryMuchMistaken]

Get Goodyear, Pirelli or Michelin back.

I'd go for Pirelli over Goodyear, although I've no idea why. Wouldn't mind seeing Dunlop return either. However, I really don't want Michelin back – USA 2005 still haunts my memories.

[madbrad]

Nobody wants to see Avon back?

[FerrariFan63]

If Bridgestone are leaving for cost reasons, then new contracts could probably be negotiated which make it more financially viable for Bridgestone to stay.

[Gaz]

vredestein tyres