Pirelli's contract expires at the end of next season; Wider tyres planned for 2017
Thursday 4 June 2015 16:37, UK
The FIA have officially put the contract to be F1’s sole tyre supplier in 2017, 2018 and 2019 out to tender.
Currently, Pirelli are the sports supplier and the Italian firm’s deal expires at the end of next season. 2017 will then see major changes to the tyres which will be made wider as part of plans to make the cars five to six seconds per lap quicker.
The FIA have also said they would be open to changing the diameter of the wheel to bigger than the current 13 inches if the tyre manufacturer feels there may be advantages to the competitors by doing so.
Pirelli have previously tested 18 inch tyres on a Lotus at the 2014 in-season test at Silverstone and in Monaco this weekend, ran a GP2 car on 18 inch tyres with Sky F1’s Martin Brundle at the wheel.
The deadline for applications is June 17 2015, with candidates who meet FIA safety and technical requirements then meeting for commercial negotiations and final consideration.
As companies have been invited to tender to be the sole supplier, it would mean F1 would not return to the days of a tyre war, last seen in 2006 when Bridgestone and Michelin faced-off.
That is news which will please team bosses, including Mercedes’ Toto Wolff, Red Bull’s Christian Horner, Force India’s Bob Fernley and Toro Rosso’s Franz Tost who opposed a tyre war.
“I just hope that no tyre war will come, that means no other tyre manufacturer, because this means that two teams will get the good tyres and the rest will just get this crap, because like it was before, when Michelin was in, it was Renault therefore Alonso has good memories and Bridgestone with Ferrari, therefore Michael was so successful, one of the reasons, yeah?,” Tost said in Thursday’s FIA Press Conference.
“If this comes back, it's the same story: the two tyre manufacturers, two teams which get good tyres; three tyre manufacturers, three teams and the rest just get what the others don't like.”
