Will Ferrari dump Bridgestone?

No one is dumping no one!

Ferrari have a great working partnership with bridgestone. The combined package of the F2005 and the Bridgestone tires and the new regulations has created some straines on the relationship. The F2004 worked perfectly on Bridgestone rubber.

How come nobody complains when things are going right?

 

This is big time racing, i wouldn't be surprised if it did happen. When Luca is saying the only problem were have is right there on the four corners of the car, it would consititute a problem.

 

It will take about 2 years or more to build the kind of technical partnership with Michelin that Ferrari have with Bridgestone.

AND.......

What is to say Michelin will agree? They might just tell Ferrari NO!

P.S. Flight delays suck!

 

This just in: "Italian shoe manufacturers group Moda announces they're making "footwear" for the F1-2005 Ferrari"
("We may not be winning, but we look good.)

flem at 11

 

What, do you own stock in bridgestone or something?

 

..is that Bridgestone will get it right, if not this season then certainly by the next.

 

Thinking about all this, I just discovered Mad Max' and Bernie's master plan from 2004:

With Ferrari's dominance F1 viewership went downhill, so Bernie was unhappy.
With the Michelin-Bridgestone tire war at hand, the cars lap times dropped by seconds per year, hence increasing the risks for a serious accident. That made Max unhappy.

They sat together, discussed the problem and realized that by introducing a rule change, that would require lots of testing miles, they would get Ferrari into a difficult position.

Sure enough 2005 Ferrari no longer dominated and quickly realized, that their tires were to blame. Bernie was happy as the season became a lot more interesting and viewership increased with the new drama.

The scuderia decided to drop the Bridgestones tires and switch to Michelin for 2006. That left Bridgestone with Minardi and Jordan. No other big team wanted to expose themselves to the risk Ferrari had in 2005 and so Bridgestone was left with two underperforming teams. They realized this way they could never win a title and pulled out of F1.

At the beginning of 2006 only Michelin was left and since there was no more need for competition, their tire compounds became harder and more reliable. Subsequently the lap times increased and so did the safety margin. That made Max happy.

Si non e vero e bon trovato.

 

I wonder why Ferrari doesn't use Pirelli tires?...after all, Pirelli is an Italian company!

 

If they don't perform better, there won't be a next year for Bridgestone.

 

Pirelli was in F1 in the 80 and nineties. While they were ok, and won with the Benneton on occasion i think, i don't think the have the resources to put together an effort like bridgestone does.

 

the bridgestone tires by themselves are perfect! The Bridgestone tires on the F2005 have certain problems. Changing the tire technical partner will not do any good because it is very possible that the F2005 can adversely react to Michelins or Pirellis or Goodyears!

 

The tires are underdeveloped for the car. If they were perfect they'd be fast on another car and I don't see Jordan or minardi going much faster than last year. Then again that would take a miracle.

 

I wonder if Goodyear will return to F1? This looks like a window of opportunity for them. I guess it all depends on if Goodyear thinks it it would be profitable or not. Michelin vs Goodyear, now that is a good match up for a tire war.

 

True, but I don't want a tire war. I want a spec tire for everybody. Take the stupid rubber out of the equation and let the cars and drivers decide the championship.

I had this opinion btw all along, even when Bridgestone gave Ferrari an advantage: I want the car/driver to win the race, not the tire. I consider tires interchangable consumables like fuel and oil.

 

You make some valid points. My initial response
is to say how can Ferrari "dump" the tyre maker
who helped the team achieve six straight
Constructor Championships. Second, the comeback
both the team and Bridgestone made after the
Hungarian debacle in 2003 was pure "professional"
at its best, recovering from being lapped at
"Magyarul" to win the U.S. and Japanese G.P.'s,
Michael and Rubens respectively. Then there
is the unparalled success of last year.
Yet, Michelin has all those other teams it supplies,
making it seem from an outsider like me looking in
that Bridgestone must be behind or it wouldn't
have so few F1 clients.

 

Let us look at a few parallels.
Marlboro and McLaren Marlboro dumped McLaren for Ferrari.
McLaren dumped Porsche
Honda dumps Williams
Cooperate relationships are not marriages they are symbiotic relationships that are brokered in boardrooms.
With multimillions at stake, publicity - there is no such thing
as bad publicity is not true - Audi and unintended acceleration make the point.
Bridgestone continuing to get bad press will spill into the boardroom and Bridgestone will withdraw to save face to
the mutual satisfaction of both Ferrari and Bridgestone.
Stephen

 

What perfect? Then explain to me why a Japanese team is not using a Japanese Tire...........Toyota knows something we don't.....fundamental problems

 

Can you please tell me when was the last time Toyota won 6 Constructor's World Championships in a row?

 

What relevance is that? Toyota is a huge company with an enormous budget and when they go racing they go to win. No doubt they will win championships too. Go back and look at IMSA GT and later in FIA Group C.....they have the resources, spend the money on the best equipment and package available. They chose not use Bridgestone, who is in their backyard. You'd think there would be strong partnerships available to them because of that would you not. Toyota may have stayed away from Bridgestone, thus hurting technology/testing info sharing with Ferrari, because of Ferrari.

The facts are that Bridgestone does not have the experience making a tire last. They dominated when race strategy had 2-3 pitstops with tire changes each time because they could use a real soft compound that had gobs of mechanical grip imediately but did not have to last. Now they are struggling with chemistry needed to this job. Michelin has been doing it for years in endurance racing and thus have a large knowledge base in making a tire perform for upwards of an hour thirty on GT cars, about an hour for prototypes.

Bridgestone will have to burn more than the mid night oil. You just can't say the tire is perfect if it does not help them get on the front row. It's damn hard to move through the field these days because the depth of the field is much stronger and almost impossible at a track like Monte.....If you are not up front at the start, the only way you get there is by attrition.

The car is fast, and the tire is fast..........but it has to be fast all the time for it to be perfect and doing the job needed to win at the level the rest of the field is now.