FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[7UpJordan]

actually in 2003 Ferrari - Bridgestone all the sudden complained about the tyre dimensions of the Michelins after a few years of running in the that spec. so the Michelins were forcibly changed in the dying stages of the championship

And we all know why that was.

No offence Mclaren - but that a kinda killed off William's title push
Mclaren dug deep of course

And who knows Williams's alliance with BMW might have been still alive today and more titles might have been picked up along the way and the driver line-up would probably today be either Nico along with either Kubica or Vettel.

[Denthúl]

I dunno what to think of Kimi. I mean, look at the very first race in australia, spun off twice. He just seems half asleep at times. But sure hes a great natural talent. I mean, Suzuka 05 says it all really. But the only race I've watched and thought woah, was Spa this year, until he messed up 2 laps to go.

But I still think Massa will out do him next year. Considering they said Kimi was slow to adapt to bridgestone tyres in 2007, how long will it take to adapt to kers, low downforce and slicks.

Probably much less time. The winter should be enough.

There were huge differences between the Michelin and Bridgestone tyres of the past five years or so. Notably the sidewalls, which gave Michelin runners a big advantage pretty much everywhere other than Indianapolis' banking (see 2005 for the example).

actually in 2003 Ferrari - Bridgestone all the sudden complained about the tyre dimensions of the Michelins after a few years of running in the that spec. so the Michelins were forcibly changed in the dying stages of the championship

I believe the complaint was about the fact that, whilst the tread-width passed scrutineering, during the race they actually widened as the tyre was used, giving a larger gripping surface, which broke regulations. Michelin hid it in the same way that Ferrari did with the flexible floor.

The tyres that Kimi then became used to, up until 2006, had a more flexible sidewall than the Bridgestone which gave them some kind of advantage (I didn't actually watch much of either of the 2005/2006 seasons). Of course, this meant that under load on the Indianapolis banking in 2004 and 2005 (though much worse in the latter year) it actually caused the tyres to collapse. The reason it was only an isolated incident in 2004 is because cars were allowed to change tyres. Switching from those Michelins to the new Bridgestones would of course have been more difficult than going from older Bridgestones to newer ones. Although, going from grooves to slicks could have any kind of effect on a driver.

[the stig]

all these drivers cut their teeth in junior catagories using slick tyres so i can't see how any of them can have too much trouble adapting back