Le Mans’ Balance of Performance doesn’t belong in F1, team bosses say

18 comments on “Le Mans’ Balance of Performance doesn’t belong in F1, team bosses say”

1. 

   Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
   17th June 2023, 1:45

   Gareth Bale obviously knows a lot about F1, as apparently you pit for petrol these days.
   I presume his only tenuous interest in F1 is that he met Hamilton at an awards ceremony sometime.
   1. 

      Jay
      17th June 2023, 18:39

      Never even heard of the guy. Who cares what he thinks!
2. 

   Darryn Smith (@darryn)
   17th June 2023, 3:10

   A lot of talk about BoP not coming to F1 which means it is. Cap isn’t working and the ground effects did sweet fa to help passing so BoP is next.
   1. 

      Antz (@antznz)
      17th June 2023, 10:13

      @darryn i get the same impression.. I really hope not but it just keeps coming up. When there’s smoke….
   2. 

      MichaelN
      17th June 2023, 11:20

      Don’t think so, it’s just the usual “Le Mans was great, why is F1 so dull?” period that lasts about a month before everyone gets back to pretending the post-break F1 races will be different.

      And they might well be, but it’s a sure bet that’ll be because Red Bull has no reason to keep working on their 2023 car.
3. 

   SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
   17th June 2023, 5:36

   @keithcollantine doesn’t seem to realize that if you tell Verstappen he needs to clear any sporting challenge before x time to get something Max wants, that he’ll accept and attempt to clear that challenge.

   So yeah, they could’ve told him that and he’d probably be champ before Zandvoort.
   1. 

      pez2k (@pez2k)
      17th June 2023, 11:53

      I think that’s probably the point yeah – they could use it as both a great way to motivate him to achieve new heights, and as an excuse to not let him do the demo that’s mostly waterproof. If he had already won the drivers’ title somehow, then the risk to their title chances from him having an accident that resulted in missing a race are mostly gone.

      It depends on how big Marko judges the risk to be though – as someone whose racing career was ended by an injury he’s most likely very cautious about it.
4. 

   Jere (@jerejj)
   17th June 2023, 6:38

   BoP indeed doesn’t belong to F1, so going for such a route would be wrong as one should never get (truly) penalized for success.
   1. 

      MichaelN
      17th June 2023, 11:18

      F1 teams are already penalized for success with reduced testing and development time.
5. 

   SteveP
   17th June 2023, 8:25

   Bridgestone lodges bid to replace Pirelli as F1 tyre supplier

   Nice.
   I don’t know why “senior figures” are casting doubt on their ability to make a better tyre than Pirelli though, it’s not like Pirelli have improved over the last decade and have a superb product – check the long list of articles where drivers and teams complain about the narrow performance window.

   Maybe Bridgestone can give us the closer racing we keep asking to see, races with a driver almost hanging on the gearbox of the car in front, for corner after corner
   1. 

      S
      17th June 2023, 10:45

      it’s not like Pirelli have improved over the last decade and have a superb product

      It’s not like the cars aren’t always changing and being adapted to exceed the tyre performance limits….

      I can’t wait for some other tyre supplier to come in to F1 with the same restrictions placed on Pirelli, and prove just how impossible a task it is to satisfy all these people who can never be satisfied.
      I can’t think of anything that would boost Pirelli’s image more than another manufacturer doing a worse job.

      As always, the solution to better racing in F1 is in the cars – not the tyres.
6. 

   Pat Pepper
   17th June 2023, 9:28

   If Bridgestone want to re-enter F1, scrap the sole supplier rule and let them do so in competition with Pirelli.
   I believe it is no coincidence that since the introduction of the sole supplier concept, we have had three long periods of one-team dominance (Red Bull/Mercedes/Red Bull). Though the sole supplier rule is clearly not the only reason for this, it has taken away what was always one of the main ways to shake up the pecking order.
   F1 went with a sole supplier as one of the ways to reduce costs, which can soar in a tyre war, and I get that, but at the same time it asked Pirelli to deliberately manufacture certain compounds which would deteriorate quickly, which flies in the face of the intention to reduce financial profligacy (and indeed the intention to be more ecologically friendly). It also holds up the pinnacle of motor sport to ridicule by casual viewers. So a return to tyre competition could be done in tandem with moves to reduce the current wasteful practices, for example by restricting all cars to one planned tyre change per the race (“planned” meaning not counting force majeure for punctures) and restricting compounds to hard and medium.
   If tyre supply was opened up to competition again, and with the silly degradation requirements dropped, you could pretty much guarantee Michelin would want to get involved as well.
   1. 

      anon
      17th June 2023, 10:01

      Would Michelin really want to come back? They certainly have no issues with having monopoly supplies in other series, such as the WEC or MotoGP.
      1. 

         MichaelN
         17th June 2023, 11:17

         Bridgestone and Michelin do not want to make tyres that are designed to fall apart as an “improvement of the show”, which the FIA has explicitly named as a requirement.

         So no, unless either the FIA or the manufacturers changes their view, they have no interest in being in F1.
         1. 

            anon
            17th June 2023, 18:20

            MichaelN, not quite sure what point you are trying to make when that wasn’t the aspect that I was questioning – rather, it was to ask why the original poster seemed to think that Michelin would be interested if there was competition when it has not been an issue for them in other racing series.

            Furthermore, you appear to have missed the link in this round up stating that Bridgestone have submitted a formal application for the 2025-2027 tyre supply contract. The 2025-2027 tyre supply contract has the same performance requirements as the current contract does – the main changes being related to sustainability measures and an electronic tagging system to assist with scrutineering, not the tyre performance characteristics.

            Your post is therefore clearly wrong – Bridgestone clearly do have an interest in manufacturing the same type of tyres that are used now given they are bidding for the future tyre supply contract, which operates to the same specification that we have now.
            1. 

               Pat Pepper
               19th June 2023, 21:31

               @anon, two things:
               First, it’s not a binary choice, you know. Just because Michelin have no issues with monopoly status in certain series, it doesn’t stop them from being interested in competition elsewhere.
               In fact, that precise point was made very clearly in 2020 by the Director of Michelin Motorsport, Matthieu Bonardel, when he said “there is nothing better than competition to improve yourself, but you also realise that being alone allows you to do things all the same”.
               So there you have the answer to your question in black and white, Michelin telling you exactly the reason why they might be interested if there was competition, and complimenting rather than contradicting their contentment with sole supplier status elsewhere to boot.
               But second, with respect, it’s no good only reading half of what I said, which was that I thought Michelin would be interested if there was competition again *and with the silly degradation requirements dropped*.
               They’ve made it quite clear on numerous occasions that they’re not interested in returning to F1 either as sole supplier or as competitor if those degradation requirements are not dropped. Bonardel’s predecessor Pascal Couasnon cited it as one of the key reasons the company didn’t bid for the F1 tender currently in operation, and this April Michelin’s CEO himself, Florent Menegaux, repeated “tyres that destroy themselves” as the irreconcilable difference in their discussions with F1 about the next tender.
7. 

   MichaelN
   17th June 2023, 11:14

   Szafnauer, Stella, and Vowles represent three teams who – combined (!) – won a total of two races in the last ten seasons; both in 2021 with its somewhat unusual technical regulations (due to COVID-19 and the postponed to 2022 regulation overhaul).

   It’s all well and good for them to talk about “purity”, but when measured by their own stated preference that F1 is “about doing the best you can against your competitors and every two weeks, having a reality check on where you are going.” There is really only one conclusion: they’ve collectively wasted billions on failed projects.
   1. 

      asd
      17th June 2023, 17:08

      This makes them a perfect representation of Formula 1, since most teams in Formula 1 are not winning races at all!

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