Pirelli are going to make like Bridgestone....

gloomyDAY

and split from another illustrious (

) FIA world championship.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80006

Who will take their place in the WRC?
They are considering staying on, but they've been taking a lot of hits.
Firing people, closing up shops, and being in the red. Got to stay alive first before being able to compete.

Macd

Its a joke that teams connot choose their own tyres these days anyway. I hope the FIA digs themselfs a nice hole with this one.

Langdale Forest

Shame that a ledgendary tyre company is about to leave the WRC.

Sulland

Hankook, Dunlop or Kuhmo ?

Maybe even a chinese tyre maker, someone will sign up - be sure !

ProRally

Originally Posted by Sulland
Hankook, Dunlop or Kuhmo ?

Maybe even a chinese tyre maker, someone will sign up - be sure !

Don't forget MRF of India, it is a HUGE company in India and already many years active in rally....

AndyRAC

I won't exactly be sorry - I'm totally against control tyres. Michelins were miles better than Pirelli, but Pirelli got the contract. Work that out.......

Sulland

Pirelli made a cheaper offer. And as long as everyone use the same "hockeypucks" it does not matter how good they are, as long as the tires are taken out of the equation of who wins or not, that's is the idea behind control tires.

Makes sense in my book !!

L5->R5/CR

Here is a crazy idea but why not make teams "BUY" tires that are available, in a pool, to all teams.

No more special tires for this team or that team tire sponsorships. No more, more equal tires for this team then an other.

Any manufacturer that wishes to supply rally tires to an event sends a truck with tires. The event organizers/FIA provide a "tire depot"/mounting area where teams bring in wheels and request tires. The tires are then randomly taken from that manufacturer's supplies and are mounted and provided back to the teams for the teams to "cut" and use as they see fit.

It is kind of a crazy idea but it could prove to be really interesting. Obviously it would put a lot of pressure on tire manufacturers but it would open up tire usage rules and allow anyone that makes a suitable tire to enter.

There are offerings from:
Pirelli
Michelin/BFGoodrich
Yokohama
Dunlop
Kuhmo
Hankook
MRF
Lassa
and I am sure many more.

There are certainly better tires and worse tires but it would make things like tire choice, cutting tires, and whose tires for what conditions all become factors that could add a nice spice to the overall rally equation...

bluuford

Originally Posted by L5->R5/CR
Here is a crazy idea but why not make teams "BUY" tires that are available, in a pool, to all teams.

No more special tires for this team or that team tire sponsorships. No more, more equal tires for this team then an other.

Any manufacturer that wishes to supply rally tires to an event sends a truck with tires. The event organizers/FIA provide a "tire depot"/mounting area where teams bring in wheels and request tires. The tires are then randomly taken from that manufacturer's supplies and are mounted and provided back to the teams for the teams to "cut" and use as they see fit.

It is kind of a crazy idea but it could prove to be really interesting. Obviously it would put a lot of pressure on tire manufacturers but it would open up tire usage rules and allow anyone that makes a suitable tire to enter.

There are offerings from:
Pirelli
Michelin/BFGoodrich
Yokohama
Dunlop
Kuhmo
Hankook
MRF
Lassa
and I am sure many more.

There are certainly better tires and worse tires but it would make things like tire choice, cutting tires, and whose tires for what conditions all become factors that could add a nice spice to the overall rally equation...

Yeah, it is stupid idea. can you imagine the cost of that measure? When the team wants to test all those hundreds of tires? If you ban testing, then they can still do it in some way. In my view the current situation is the best. Really. That has reduced the grip of the tires and we can see little bit more sideways action. There are only a few things that they should do. 1. Increase the width of the winter tires even more (we can see more sideways stuff and road surface should last longer). 2. To reduce grip of the gravel tires by making them even harder and maybe wider and cars that are not in P1 and P2 they should use little bit softer tires than current tires (Less punishing for the suspension components of production cars+reduces the speed between GrN and WRC).

Karukera

Can't blame them for retiring, should they decide it.

Pirelli received better commercial exposition when they were crushed by Michelin/BFG on rally stages.
At that time tire brands were mentioned everytime for anything as the Ford Pirelli shod... the driver BFG shod... et caetera.

L5->R5/CR

Originally Posted by bluuford
Yeah, it is stupid idea. can you imagine the cost of that measure? When the team wants to test all those hundreds of tires? If you ban testing, then they can still do it in some way. In my view the current situation is the best. Really. That has reduced the grip of the tires and we can see little bit more sideways action. There are only a few things that they should do. 1. Increase the width of the winter tires even more (we can see more sideways stuff and road surface should last longer). 2. To reduce grip of the gravel tires by making them even harder and maybe wider and cars that are not in P1 and P2 they should use little bit softer tires than current tires (Less punishing for the suspension components of production cars+reduces the speed between GrN and WRC).

Yeah....

Posting after working 15 hours straight was not a good idea...

Wouldn't work but would be interesting if it did...