Pirelli doubts F1 will ever return to tyre war

Formula 1 is unlikely to ever again feature a development battle between multiple tyre companies, believes Pirelli’s Mario Isola, due to the raised costs and performance disparity it would create.

Formula 1 most recently featured competition between two tyre manufacturers from 2001 to 2006, when Michelin and Bridgestone battled it out.

Michelin’s withdrawal at the end of 2006 left Bridgestone as the sole supplier, with Pirelli taking over the contract from the Japanese company prior to 2011.

Pirelli’s current deal as Formula 1’s exclusive supplier runs through 2019, and Isola does not expect a second manufacturer to enter, citing two key reasons.

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“At the moment we supply the same product to all the teams,” said Isola, having said he “doesn’t think” a tyre war will ever happen in Formula 1.

“That means we put all the teams on the same level, talking about tyres.

“If you go in the situation of open competition, something that happened in the past, you increase the costs for sure, because you need to test.

“You will have the top teams with a better product compared to the midfield or the lower teams as at this point you don’t have any obligation to supply the same tyres to everybody.

“[Therefore] you create a big differential between top teams and the others.

“Maybe with two or three tyre manufacturers you can have a couple of teams fighting at the top but the rest [will be] struggling with the performance.

“Because with the tyres you can easily find half a second per lap or more so you generate a bigger delta compared to now.”

The current run is the longest in Formula 1 history to feature a sole tyre supplier, with the spell from 1992-96, when Goodyear was the only manufacturer, the previous longest.