Michelin haven’t been concerned in System 1 for over 16 years, and a few daring feedback from the tyre producer’s CEO earlier this week urged that isn’t about to vary.
Florent Menegaux was frank in his evaluation of System 1 and the FIA’s invitation to tender for the unique tyre provider rights to the world championship, at the moment opened for the 2025-27 F1, F2 and F3 seasons. Dismissing the FIA’s insistence that F1’s tyre provider make compounds that proceed to function a ‘cliff’ the place efficiency drops off exponentially, Menegaux stated Michelin had little interest in making tyres that “destroy themselves”.
F1’s distinctive tyre philosophy during the last decade has separated it from just about all different worldwide racing collection. No different championship makes tyres which degrade quickly a central focus of its racing.
Some regard high-deg tyres as essential to producing intrigue and technique variance in a collection the place refuelling is banned. Others wince at the concept that drivers ought to prioritise managing their rubber throughout a race to maximise their efficiency, somewhat than push flat-out over each nook of each lap.
However is Menegaux proper to so shortly dismiss F1 and the FIA’s angle in direction of the tyres they need to see within the sport over time to return?
System 1 has been a single-tyre class ever since Michelin left the world championship on the finish of 2006. Bridgestone spent 4 seasons because the unique provider between 2007 and 2010, earlier than Pirelli took over in the beginning of 2011.
Pirelli returned to System 1 after 20 years with tyres which have been very completely different to these raced in F1 beforehand. This was intentional. Simply two weeks earlier than the FIA named them as F1’s subsequent provider in June 2010, the Canadian Grand Prix came about, a race that modified the game’s philosophy over tyres.
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The everyday tyre technique in 2010 was for drivers to begin the race on the softer compound after which make a single pit cease for the more durable tyres to run to the top. Nonetheless on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, with monitor temperatures approaching 40C, Bridgestone’s chosen super-soft and medium tyre compounds wilted.
The dramatic lap time distinction between the 2 compounds and excessive degradation led to an thrilling, unpredictable race with many alternative methods enjoying out. F1 and the FIA appreciated what they noticed, and requested Pirelli to supply tyres that will degrade at a variable fee. Pirelli did as they have been requested, making tyres which had a built-in efficiency ‘cliff’ the place the grip would drop off dramatically.
Though Pirelli’s tyres had their critics – notably after a spate of dramatic failures at Silverstone in 2013 – Pirelli’s made-to-degrade tyres achieved what F1 and the FIA wished for the game. When the unique tyre provider contract was subsequent opened, the requirement that tyres ought to be made with a ‘cliff’ in-built was retained when Pirelli retained the tender for subsequent durations.
Of their invitation to tender for the unique tyre provider for the present interval – protecting 2020-23 and later prolonged to incorporate 2024 – the FIA clearly outlined its targets for the way quickly lap occasions ought to degrade for every of the three compounds used within the overwhelming majority of race weekend. Goal ‘A1’ of the tender requested the tyre producer to purpose for compounds that will lose roughly two seconds of efficiency at completely different charges – the hards by 22% race distance, the mediums at 18% and the softs at 10% race distance.
The FIA additionally set a goal for tough lap time distinction between the three compounds: the exhausting tyre was the baseline, with the mediums imagined to be round 1.2 seconds a lap faster and the softs 2.2 seconds a lap sooner than the hards. In 2023, Pirelli’s tyres are far nearer in efficiency then that preliminary FIA goal requested, with Pirelli’s personal knowledge suggesting the medium compound has been, on common, seven tenths of a second a lap faster than the hards over the opening three race weekends, with the smooth tyres 1.26s a lap sooner.
For 2025 and past, the FIA states 4 essential goals for F1’s tyres – other than the overriding concern of security. Of highest precedence is: “enchancment of the present”. The secondary concern is “driveability” of the tyres, adopted by total efficiency and eventually the tyre’s working circumstances.
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Nonetheless, there does appear to have been a philosophy change for 2025. Not is the FIA calling for compounds that quickly degrade with main lap time deltas between every step. As a substitute, they explicitly specify tyres which can supply “little or no degradation” throughout “all of the three compounds.”
The FIA’s excellent exhausting compound throughout a race weekend would final round 180 kilometres (a little bit over half a race distance) with the mediums lasting just below a 3rd of a race distance and the softs round 1 / 4 of a race distance. By way of lap time, the FIA are calling for extra parity throughout the compounds than groups have ever had over the beginning of 2023 thus far. They need the mediums to be round half-a-second a lap faster than the exhausting compound throughout a typical race weekend, with the softs round a full second a lap sooner than the hards.
Nonetheless, any followers who’ve longed to see the again of tyres intentionally designed to supply a ‘cliff’ might be left dissatisfied. The latest tender nonetheless explicitly mentions a “non-linear efficiency gradient change (‘cliff’)” as being “fascinating each for its influence on race methods and to make sure tyres usually are not run to some extent of extreme put on”. For Michelin, and probably different tyre producers, that is the essential issue that dissuades them from contemplating a bid of their very own.
Even when Pirelli are reselected as F1’s sole tyre producer it appears like the game needs to strike a extra conservative steadiness between sturdiness and efficiency. One that might, in concept, see fewer pit stops throughout a race on common as tyres are constructed to last more than they’re at the moment imagined to. And with much less of a efficiency hole between the assorted compounds, that might supply groups extra flexibility to decide to the compound mixtures that swimsuit their automobiles finest, somewhat than merely go together with the optimum technique that the tyres dictate.
However whoever finally ends up supplying tyres to System 1 from 2025 and past, anticipate tyre put on and efficiency to proceed to be main speaking factors each grand prix weekend.
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