[Taxi645]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Taxi, you need to revise your thinking about costs, because two manufacturers having to produce tyres , but for only half the season, would double the costs for tyres for the simple reason that each manufacturer would have exactly the same overheads as Pirelli currently have now; in fact, by halving their supply, their fixed costs would increase the price for each tyre they produce. I would suggest that you are not inputting a true manufacturing scenario; the more that you produce, the cheaper the product; halving production increases cost overheads which are fixed regardless of how many you produce. I know this from managing production facilities around half the globe for 25 odd years.

I think your misunderstanding what I'm saying. I'm acknowledging that it would more expensive than it is now. What I'm also saying is that it would be cheaper than when manufacturers are competing head to head with each event like before.

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

What are those two manufacturers supposed to do with their tyre technicians when they are not travelling to half of the races, or do you propose that they only have contracts to attend their allotted races? I can't see that going down too well when they are sat at home twiddling their thumbs unpaid.

Or have them back at the factory providing feedback to the R&D team.

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

About comparing how good or better races are with one tyre as opposed to the other make, that could only be done if you compared them at the same circuit, as no two circuits are the same. So that would be an unfair comparison.

I think over time the difference would become clear enough, but you could possibly address it further by swapping which tyre is run year on year at what event.

Originally Posted by chillibowl

in fairness, and not to be dismissive of the idea, but i guess im not really interested in having that opportunity.

i suppose its more of a balance issue for me in that i want the focus to be on the cars, their designs, and the drivers rather than the narrative focusing on tires and/or the differing marking agendas for various tire manus.

i didnt think i would like it when FOM/Pirelli opted to just label the tires Soft/Medium/Hard and stop focusing, less publicly at least, where exactly those tires fit in Pirelli's compound range...but as it turns out im actually happier with less talk during the broadcasts about tires overall.

that of course could just be a defense mechanism and that i have forgotten how much i used to enjoy the Bridgestone v Michelin debates back in the day!

Fair enough. I myself was not really convinced of the cries by some to reintroduce tyre competition in the way it was done up to now for the reasons mentioned. The idea was just pitched to tackle the most severe drawbacks of that approach. I'm also not sure if it would be worth all the hassle. However if a tyre competition were to be reintroduced I would strongly prefer this approach rather than splitting the field between tyres.