Will Ferrari dump Bridgestone?

Sorry did not mean it like that. My point was that there surely has to be differences between the cars. It then becomes team work between tyre manufacturer, driver and car that produce race results. McLaren seem to have all that today.

 

Here's what Jean Todt has to say on the subject:
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That sounds positive to me.

 

While it may be true that the tires are made to suit the car, who's to really say that Michelins wouldn't work well on a Ferrari? It's not like the car is totally different from anything else in the field. The Michelins are made to work on several cars in the field, they may work just fine on the Ferrari. Bridgestone was the only tire suited to only one car, and now not even that.

 

Bottom line is, nobody outside of the Ferrari F1 team really knows. We can all sit here and speculate this topic to death and still will have no idea if Michellin tyres will work as well on the F-2005 as they do on the cars from other teams. Saying that they will is just as irrsponsible as saying that they won't. Ferrari made a decision to go with Bridgestone with the intention of having "custom tyres" made for them. This partnership had worked in the past years, thus resulted in all the titles they have collected "TOGETHER". This year, it didn't work out but that's all part of it. It was a calculated risk that didn't work out for this season, who is to say that Bridgestone will not make a comback and wipe the floors with Michellin later this year or next year? Ferrari should finish up their contract with Bridgestone, it is the only classy thing to do.

It is better to be beaten with dignity than to lose the intergrity and respect of their fans just because you can't take the taste of defeat. Once the contract is up, then Ferrari has the right to re-evaluate their situation and decide who they would want to partner with.

 

I really wonder whether those INSIDE the team know?

I agree with most what you said, but at the end of the day it is only a business deal with Bridgestone and I seriously HOPE that Todt & Co. at least give the Michelins some thought. Getting beaten is par for the course. Getting humiliated weekend after weekend and not look at alternatives would be silly. But I'm sure they know that.

So: How could Ferrari actually pull a Michelin tire test off if they wanted? I'm not even sure that is within the rules. And it would certainly not go over well with Bridgestone. So could they ask Sauber to conveniently "forget" a few pairs in Fiorano's garage, paint over the Michelin name and try them out? Or could they just officially ask for a test? Anybody knows?

 

Forget the 05 car. I'm thinking longterm and next year's car, which is probably only a couple months away from being designed.

If Bridgestone can't get their act together and if the current rules demand more testing time than you can generate as one (three) team, then they should at least consider whether a switch for next year wouldn't be appropriate.

 

finally saw the tape last night... 4 sec.s slow in qualifying from ferrari is rather a crisis isnt it?

 

This is what happens when we have Mickey Mouse Circus rules for qualification that are changed everyday!

 

If Ferrari has a contract with Bridgestone, I would expect them to honor the terms of the contract. Unless Bridgestone agrees to a buy out or to forfeit the contract, then Ferrari is free to seek another tyre supplier as their partner. Just like you said, business is business, and a contract is a contract. Even thieves have honor among them, shouldn't Ferrari? I want to see them win just as bad as anyone, but not at the cost of the team's soul. I don't know about the rest of you, but if Ferrari decides to just dump Bridgestone, I feel the move will greatly tarnish the Ferrari aura world wide.

Another thing is, as I stated in another thread before this one, I feel that FIA should have rules that dictates how many teams any manufacture has the rights to supply, thus make it more of an even playing field when it comes to tyre testings. As in any engine manufacture (Honda, Cosworth, MB and BMW) will have to supply at least two teams. Tyre manufactures has to supply equal number of teams, if there are odd number of teams for that season, the worst team from the previous year reserve the right to chose which ever tyre supplier they want to partner with. With these two rules, you would eliminate the engine concerns and the lack of tyre testing data. Then again, since I don't run FIA, what the heck do I know.

 

Good points. F1 is a cut throat world and a contract isn't worth the paper it is written on. However Ferrari is also a car manufacturer and partner with Bridgestone, so just dumping them wouldn't be so easy and you're probably right about a potential image issue.

I like your new FIA rule and it would make sense. However I do believe that FIA is actually trying to get rid of Bridgestone so they end up with only one supplier, which will bring the tire war to an end and safety will increase. The fact, that the surviving tire manufacturer happens to be French is an added bonus.

 

I sincerely belive that what the FIA is trying to create is another version of NASCAR. It is not too soon when we hear tat everyone has to use the same chassis and same engine. (obviously both Renault)

Ferrari have to be the ones that stand up to the FIA and continue the fight. The 7 GPWC teams that quit F1 do not know how to fight the establishment. The establishment has to be fought from within. By quiting, it just shows how weak they really are!

Ferrar 1 - 2 at Nurburgring!

 

Won't happen: F1 has become a battleground for car manufacturers. They are interested in keeping their own cars and engines. If the FIA wins, the manufacturers will start their own series. There will never be a spec engine nor a spec car. A spec tire maybe. Spec wings probably.

 

Ferrari will insure that there is never a spec car and engine. If it were up to the FIA and Bernie, they would be racing Formula Mazda race cars with different logos. Paul Stoddart would be very happy because cost would be so low!

Ferrari is what has kept F1 alive all these years and Ferrari will insure that no such thing happens. There will be no spec tires!

 

Bernie is all about $$$ and obviously didn't like the idea of the break away series. But he is no fool. He knows that without Ferrari there is no show. Before Ferrari started winning he was their biggest supporter all along. Because he likes Ferraris (remember he has one of the biggest Ferrari collections in the world) and because they're good for biz.

 

they always handles it before imp-y. they need the only answer: SATO!!!!!!!!!

 

I used to have a lot of respect for Bernie but lost it in a flash after seeing his tremendous effort to bring about ufair rules that put Ferrari at suc a disadvantage.

The F in F1 stads for Ferrari. Ferrari are number 1. There is no F1 without Ferrari and everyone who matters knows thats. Ferrari will insure that F1 does not tun into a spec series with just one tire supplier.

 

To be fair tho, Bernie and FIA has a track record of resetting the playing field whenever any team ran away from the rest of the field. When Honda was killing everyone with their turbo-charged engines, rule changed to NA engines only in 1989. When Williams cars were annihilating the rest of the field, rule changes to ban active suspension and other electronic aids.

Honestly tho, I don't mind the rule changes as much, as long as it is done with some brain cells involved and with some consistency. As in none of these constant changes to the Qualifying Session rules and as you said, making it into a spec. series. F1 is about both the drivers and the major manufactures, and they should have the freedom to push the limites as long as they are within rule and safety of everyone in mind. Let us hope that FIA realizes that before it is too late and that F1 will never turn into a spec. series.

 

I'm hoping they don't dump the Brickstones. Rather, I'm hoping they send guys over to the design department to say (in Italian) : "Are we there yet?" Over and over.

If Bridgestone can figure how to build an F1 tire that can sprint off the line and last for 60-odd laps, then maybe they can make a street tire that sticks like an A032 and lasts like an S03. Even better would be if it doesn't turn into ice skates at 40F and down.

As they say: Back to the old Drawing Board.

(Are we there, yet?)

 

At this point in the season it would be stupid to dump Bridgestone and start from scratch with Michelin unless Ferrari are looking to next season. I think they should stay with Bridgestone, at least they know that all the work being done is basically for them exclusively and not for anyone else. I think all us true tifosi, should calm down and weather the storm, it'll turn around, and stop all this gloom and doom talk. At least Ferrari is not in the pre-Todt days of disorganization, when they would freak out at the slightest thing going wrong.

 

Very well said. Spoken like a true tifosi.

Ferrari will reign supreme at Nurburgring.

 

I agree with Andreas. I think that the FIA would be quite happy for F1 to go back to having just 1 tyre supplier. I would be quite happy for the teams to have a spec tyre that was a real slick, but a pretty hard compound. I'd love to see the cars sliding around corners and fishtailing! A spec tyre would not dilute F1 as it would be the chassis, engine, and driver that made the difference. I don't think Bridgestone, Michelin, Pirrelli, or Goodyear should be effecting the world championship as it is the teams and the drivers' championship, not the tyre manufacturers.

 

You are 100% right. They are not "selecting" rules against Ferrari, they changed the rules to do a number of things combined for the same goals:

Make the races more competitive
Slow the cars down for safety
Reduce the cost

Making them use an engine for two races and one set of tires per weekend was done specifically to slow the cars down. Their thought was, they'll have to detune the engines a bit to make them last longer as well as having the drivers manage their tires in effect slowing them down.

The 2006 rules further move in that direction by the engine restrictions which purposely allow teams like Minardi and Jordan to run 2005 engines with rev restrictions so they can be more competitive financial wise.

This is done in virtually EVERY major automobile racing series in the world. Every year rules are changed in an effort to slow us down and make it a better show. I know first hand about this as a race engineer. Problem is guys like us ENJOY the challenge of finding ways to get the speed back in the car and overcoming the rules changes. Sometimes we can find ways in short order, sometimes longer. I can't tell you how many times rules have been written in direct result of how one of the cars we ran performed trying to bring us "back" to the field. In the lower ranks like, Grand Am and Speedvision, etc. Sometimes the rules get so jacked, it makes no sense to run that particular car make anymore. Factory Audi practically pulled out of road racing in SCCA after they banned the 4 wheel drive 10 years ago when they were dominating with Stuch and Rohl. Then they came back years later and as soon as they began dominating again, pop, rule changes that had them pull out again. Look what happened to the 333SP when WSC was around..........it was the car to have. IMSA or whatever it was called at the time put inlet restrictors on the car and it never was able to compete with the Riley Scott and Lola chassis cars regardless of the power plant. What did Doran do? He installed a Judd V10 that had no engine restrictions on it like the Ferrari engine and kicked ass again until they made rules on that.

Can-Am long ago..........the Chaparral was blowing everyones doors off with the flipper wing.....rule change......then the vacuum car..........rule change.

Porsche 917.....vs Ferrari 512 and the rest.....cars got too damned fast......rule change.

This is nothing new, its the way it is. Every year, engineers (teams) get copies of the proposed rules in advance in most series and there is always heated debate. But the sanction body is going to do what it sees to be the best for the series regardless of it singling out a particular team or not.

It's too bad Ferrari does not have the qualifying pace yet, but I surely like the competitive racing.......it's been a long time coming.

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