can I change my vote please ?

[lebesset]

having voted for kimi to win at Spa F , I now read that bridgestone have announced that ,instead of the ferrari biased compounds used the last couple of years , they are going to supply their two hardest compounds

clearly this is going to level up the playing field as McLaren will undoubtedly struggle less on the softer tyre , and ferrari more on the harder ; do I detect the influence of uncle bernie here? mad max even ? seems funny that the tyres previously used suddenly become too soft

on the subject of tyres , a broader range of characteristics next year ; looks like the FIA have noticed that bridgestone are in the position of heavily influencing the championship results by their tyre choices

so how do I change my vote to hamilton?

[Kester]

Is it really that important? It's not like we win anything or can see who voted for who.

[zac510]

No.

[lebesset]

surprised anyone took my heading seriously
my point is in the text

[MattF1]

I think that there would have to be a majority of teams preferring the harder compound tyres for them to change it.

[zac510]

You are seeing bias in this because you want to see bias.

Why don't you give Bridgestone the benefit of the doubt?

Bridgestone can't look good by supplying soft tyres - they can only look bad by supplying too soft tyres that don't last. So I don't blame them for going with harder more durable tyres on a high wear track like Spa.

[guy_smiley]

surprised anyone took my heading seriously
my point is in the text

yeah i was going to say the exact same thing earlier but i thought the thread would die (no offense). anyway i would ask: what compounds did they use last year at spa? soft and medium? and now its medium and hard? is that correct?

they can only look bad by supplying too soft tyres that don't last.

i agree with this part of your post...i think bridgestone will supply the tires that they think are best suited for a track. anyway, lebesset, it could be different from years past, but the car's characteristics, the track's characteristics, etc change from year to year. lastly, i would find it incredibly hard to believe that bridgestone would do something so foolish as to try to affect the outcome of the WC by supplying tires that suit one team's cars over another team's cars...i mean, c'mon!!

[Roland Ehnström]

guy_smiley, correct, last year soft and medium were used at Spa, ths year medium and hard. Last year Bridgestone were surprised by the hot weather and the softs were a bit too soft. It's got nothing to do with Ferrari vs. McLaren, Bridgestone simply don't want to look bad and do the same mistake again this year. Same thing at Interlagos, where soft and mediums will be used this year instead of the supersoft and soft used last year.

[lebesset]

well , I don't see bias because I want to...I see bias because there is bias ....can anyone put their hand on their heart and say they are never biased about ANYTHING ?

the point is that ferrari really got bridgestone into F1 , had a close relationship with them for many years and developed the tyres with them...I don't see how it is POSSIBLE for bridgestone to be completely unbiased ...it isn't part of the human condition anyway

my real gripe is that the tyre supply situation is deciding results ;if you remember , ferrari didn't struggle too much last year , did they? never seems to be a position where the shorter chassis cars are quite happy with the rubber , and ferrari struggle

imho what is needed is a wider range of tyres , and each team decides what they want brought to each race ; what's the problem with that ; they get it wrong , their problem ; with tyre spec fixed for the season [ or more ] , lead times can't be a problem
but for the moment I can only hope that the range of slicks approved for next season ameliorates the situation ; if I sound cynical it is only because too many years in the tyre business made me so

if I had my way I would impose a single tyre formula , hard enough so that it would survive a full tank mileage under any conditions AND not leave a carpet of marbles stopping overtaking because you can't go off line ;as many manufacturers as wished could submit a tyre to the FIA for approval , up to the teams to decide who they went with if there was more than one available

of course this would enable more overtaking , slow the cars , and cut costs ; any of that sound familiar ? politics wouldn't allow of course

and please don't tell me that this would stop tyre development as applied to road vehicle ; the days of any coincidence between the technologies are long past

btw , the reason for the tongue in cheek title was an attempt to demonstrate how a change of tyre spec can change the chances of the various teams ; or am I the only person who thinks that it does ?

[zac510]

Wouldn't they want softer tyres so that Ferrari can win then, especially when they are behind in the Driver's Championship.

What good is it for Bridgestone to have a level playing field?

[Tehillim]

well , I don't see bias because I want to...I see bias because there is bias ....can anyone put their hand on their heart and say they are never biased about ANYTHING ?

the point is that ferrari really got bridgestone into F1 , had a close relationship with them for many years and developed the tyres with them...I don't see how it is POSSIBLE for bridgestone to be completely unbiased ...it isn't part of the human condition anyway

But in your original post you suggested that Bridgestone were favouring McLaren, now you're suggesting they're biased towards Ferrari?

my real gripe is that the tyre supply situation is deciding results

With capped engines and tight aero regs it's inevitable isn't it? But tyres have always been a major performance constituent, when was the last time a team won a championship with the second best tyres (or with poorer tyre performance)?

imho what is needed is a wider range of tyres , and each team decides what they want brought to each race

Indeed, I can't see anyone complaining, but Bridgestone reckon it's too expensive.

[zac510]

I think tyres have been less decisive this year than in other years..

We had a close championship last year and it's looking like we'll have another one this year. 3 cheers for Bridgestone!

[lebesset]

not at all ...all teams to get to test the tyres and feed back to the FIA before anything is approved ; what tyre manufacturer is going to present a product that is rejected by the majority of teams?

[lebesset]

sorry , missed the page 2 posts there

where did I suggest that McLaren were favoured ? in fact they are somewhere in the middle here ; ferrari the most advantaged and renault the most disadvantaged due to chassis design .....noticed how far back they have fallen even with a top driver accustomed to the car ; there is a lot more to it than the sudden talk of an underpowered engine ! give them back the michelin tyres which were tailored for them [ couldn't be because they are french owned , could it ? ] and they would be back near the front ; and in my opinion , if everyone had to use michelin it would be ferrari back in class 2 !

notice that McLaren lengthened their chassis this year in attempt to get closer to the characteristics of the tyres , to some effect I would say ; and to those who seem to think that hamilton is hard on his tyres , try listening to the renault podcast [ french GP if I remember correctly ] in which the renault engineers comment on the excellence of his tyre management ; they also comment on alonso spending the weekend whinging about how bad the tyres were ...yes ,I know he is a whinger , but I ,for one ,believe he has a point

if you go back to 2002 , michelin complained to the FIA that , in effect , bridgestone could tailor their tyres for ferrari , whereas they [ michelin ] had to compromise between top teams [ williams and McLaren ] ; they were then given permission to supply teams with specific tyres ; just a coincidence then that within 2 years renault had the world championship winning car , winning the first 4 races in 2005 and again the championship in 2006 ....and by that time neither williams nor McLaren could win a race!!!!! strange that !!

[donskar]

I hereby charge lebesset with excessive use of the exclamation point(!) in the first degree.

Sentence: please re-read your last post and re-write it objectively.

Court adjourned.