I want to talk tires...
Today the teams agreed to limit tire suppliers to 1 provider in the near future. Why is this a good idea? How are tires any different than engines? Or chassis? I don't get it...
We love to see different car companies putting engines on the grid, and I don't think anyone would be upset if there were more engine manufacturers getting involved in F1. Same holds true with chassis. The latest fad seems to be a return to customer chassis and engines, but it is still far from a homogeneous grid composition. Customer bits will grow the grid, and hopefully increase competition, so I'm all for it.
The two main arguements I see for a single, control tire are:
1) Will eliminate perceived 'special treatment' of a single team by a tire manufacturer and ensure equal tire performance across the grid
2) Will decrease costs through less testing and lower cost per tire
Decreasing costs is very important, but is a single manufacturer the only way to do that? I don't think so... or you could use the same arguement to propose that a single chassis, or a single engine, or a single pit crew, or even a single driver is the future of F1. Bul
hit.
As for #1, again, why not apply that same logic to chassis and engines, and just use 1 supplier?
IT'S NOT F1 RACING, that's why!!!! Not to mention the fact that we don't hate BMW because they favour Williams, or we don't hate Petronas because they only supply fuel to Sauber.
So, what would I do if I were Max, you ask? I would propose the following:
1. Unlimited tyre manufacturers allowed.
2. Prescribed maximum cost per tire (or cost per yearly tire contract)
3. Tire manufacturers are limited to a maximum of 5 types of tire for the whole year: 1 monsoon, 1 intermediate, 1 soft, 1 medium, 1 hard. A specimen of these tires must be presented to the FIA at the beginning of the year, and at every race, scrutineers will check at random to make sure cars are in compliance (tire durometer and dimension checks). Similar to what they currently do with fuel.
Those proposals, along with the testing ban/limits that will almost certainly be imposed to reduce costs anyway, would provide for cost-effective tire supplies and the felxibility for many manufacturers to come play.
And you know what, one manufacturer may dominate for a given year. And someone else might dominate the next year. Not all that different from chassis or tires, really...
