Michelin to comeback in 2017 IF 18 inches rims

[sgth0mas]

Aesthetics discussion aside, if the teams really are concerned about the costs and risks associated with redesigning a cookie cutter push rod passive double wishbone suspension then the sport has taken a wrong turn somewhere...

At least half of the grid is concerned with the costs associated with their current activities that are intended to have a direct performance impact. So yes they would also have concern over costs associated with redesigning something that isnt intended to drop lap times. Why would any team want to add cost just to throw bigger rims on the car unless they know they will gain a competitive advantage?

And yes...the sport surely has taken a wrong turn.

Sorry sgthomas but you´re wrong, teams don´t care at all about laptimes, it´s only some fans who worry about that, and sincerely I´ll never understand that obsesion of comparing laptimes with past years...

Teams only worry about improving laptimes compared to their rivals, but they don´t care at all if that laptime is higher or lower than past season. And improving compared to their rivals can be achieved redesigning a suspension for a slower wheel the same way as redesigning any other part of the car that would make it faster. The smarter engineer will take advantage anycase

Do you know what competitive advantage means?

[Andres125sx]

I really don´t bother about rims size, or tyre manufacturer, but I bother about current perfomance of tyres.

I know it was FIA who asked for tyres suffering artificial wear, but not sure if they were trying to reach current point with tyres that force drivers to corner slower than they could

IMO this is biggest problem of current F1 and should be solved, a race where drivers can´t drive to the limit is not a race


Add to that wet tyres are simply a joke. FP3 was embarrasing, it was really far from a heavy rain, and drivers were suffering too much when aquaplanning was not a problem because there was not enough water. With that conditions they should be driving pefectly safe, but they couldn´t. Marc Gene said for the spanish tv wet tyres should work, or should be manufactured to work at around 40ºC (not sure if he said 30-40 or 40-50), and this tyres can´t reach that temperature, so they simply don´t work

Not sure if Pirelli is happy with the image they´re providing, if some people here say they´re increasing sales then it must be ok for them, but I peferctly understand Michelin POV.

IMO if Michelin can provide better tyres, more stable tyres for dry conditions so drivers can push hard for the whole stint, and usable tyres for wet coditions, I don´t care if the rims are 13, 18, 9 or 23 inches, they will be welcome.

unfortunately you didn't ask why the wet tyres didn't work well here ...seems like marc gene doesn't know too much about surfacing
F1 wet tyres are designed to operate on the sort of surface generally used on race tracks ; for reasons of climate that sort of surface won't survive at a circuit at 800 metres altitude and which is covered with snow and ice for 3 months of the year
living in such a climate makes one aware of such details
can hardy expect a tyre manufaturer to make a tyre suitable for one track at the expense of all the others

Thanks for the explanation, makes sense.

But unfortunately Pirelli rain tyres have proved to be useless on more tracks at more usual altitudes and climates, it´s not a problem we´ve only seen here, so surfacing, even when may make the problem worse, can´t explain Pirelli´s poor perfomance itself. But here the perfomance was even worse, so your point explain this perfectly

[Andres125sx]

seems like marc gene doesn't know too much about surfacing
F1 wet tyres are designed to operate on the sort of surface generally used on race tracks ; for reasons of climate that sort of surface won't survive at a circuit at 800 metres altitude and which is covered with snow and ice for 3 months of the year

btw, Gene obviously doesn´t know too much about surfacing, but he never tried to. He only talked about what he knows, pointing out the problem, wich is wet tyres didn´t reach working temperature on this track

He literally said "For some reason tyres can´t reach the working temperature here wich for a wet tyre should be around 30-40ºC"


After reading your explanation I think the situation was not that embarrasing for Pirelli, but still a poor job since the problem is not a new one. With better wet tyres maybe in Austria they would have had some problems, but not as much as we´ve seen.

To me Pirelli tyres are by far worst tyres I´ve ever seen on F1, both dry and wet compounds