Pirelli To Run FIA Cars For Next Three Years
After much wait and negotiations finally Pirelli was been signed by Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) to provide tyres to all its teams for a period of three years. The deal had been finalised and announced this week though the settlements with the company had been talked about for a long time now.
After the contract was announced, Pirelli claimed that they do not think that this contract is going to put a lot of difference at their financial conditions, due to prevailing global economic conditions, however, the teams have settled with them in a very realistic and collaborative manner and the manufacturing and logistical costs would be shared by both of them equally.
It had been Japan’s tyre company, Bridgestone that was previously supplying tyres to FIA. Last year the Japanese announced that 2010 is going to be their last year with FIA due to some other reasons as well as financial problems. Bridgestone has provided tyres to the company since the year 1997 and for the past two years it had been the sole supplier of tyres to all the teams. Two years back FIA has introduced a new rule claiming that only one manufacturer can provide tyres to all the teams that participate in a season or till the contract is valid.
The other strong contender for the deal was the French company Michelin that had supplied FIA with tyres till the year 2006; however now it was not interested in taking the contract alone. Now after the withdrawal of Bridgestone almost all the teams were in favour of the Italian company to take the contract has not supplied tyres to FIA cars since the end of the 1991 season.
The director of Michelin, Nick Shorrock, told on Wednesday that they decided not to bid for the contract as they do not want there to be a single tyre manufacturer for the entire season or so for all the teams.
He also told that several sets of negotiations have been carried in order to improve the spectacle. Also he said that they were trying to maintain a positive impact on the environment as well as trying to keep the costs in control. He also added that in order to improve the quality as well as the productivity one needs to have a healthy competitive environment which means comparing yourself with the other companies and only then technological ideas could be generated. He concluded that innovations could only be tested in competition.
However, despite all that he had to say the rules did not change at FIA as per his will and therefore, now he thinks that nothing has facilitated enough to let Michelin return to F1.
Well, Pirelli that has been able to win the contract has a long history with FIA in the past as well dating back to the FIA races in the 1950s, then the manufacturer was able to have forty four F1 race wins to its credit at all different tracks around the globe.
As the tyre manufactures change for the upcoming season also some changes have been made in the rules and regulations of the sport to be implemented from the 2011 season. One of these is the return of the “107 per cent rule” which was initially introduced in 1996, which ensured that if any car in the final qualifying round suggests to be too slow than the race leaders, it would not be allowed to take part in the race. However, the rule was scrapped at the end of 2002 season till its return now.
Whatsoever, it is not the rules and the changes that matter to the race lovers, what they actually want to see is, a great race at the track and as long as they keep getting that everything less matters less.
Tags: