Tyre wars - such a good idea?

"Did tyres play an important part today?" asked a typically self-important Mark Thatcher - working for American television for some reason - of the victor of the 1981 Las Vegas Grand Prix just finished. That victor was Alan Jones, who couldn't believe his luck that Thatcher seemingly was unaware of the trap he had just laid before himself. "Oh, absolutely" replied Jones. "You see, they keep the wheels from touching the ground".

Alan Jones - knew the value of tyres
"Alan Jones 1980" by NL-HaNA, ANEFO
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Yet even Jones when not being facetious appreciated the real importance of tyres in F1. "Goodyear are letting us down" he said of his rubber to journalist Nigel Roebuck at the Austrian Grand Prix earlier that same season, "we need some proper qualifiers. If it was up to me, I'd go back to Michelin tomorrow". And when it was pointed out that such things often are preceded with 'don't quote me' or similar, Jones was resolute. "Write it" he said. "It might get someone angry - and then something might get done about it".

Yet for all that we scarcely seem to stop talking tyres in modern F1, specific talk as Jones' is now a relic of the past. Now we are in the age of the single tyre supplier supplying its product to any and all competitors. Many ages of F1 past have had but a sole supplier too but nowadays is different, as only one is allowed. Brought in as a cost control device from 2007 onwards tyre suppliers periodically tender to be the sport's solitary chosen one. While you or I might go to visit National Tyres and Autocare or Tyre Shopper to chose their road tyres, F1 teams do not have a say on their rubber.

A decision on the latest contract, for 2017-2019, is expected soon with the incumbent Pirelli and Michelin the two companies that have pitched. It's now in effect an arbitrary Bernie Ecclestone decision as the FIA has approved both tenderers and simply he now does the deal that he chooses. And even though reportedly teams have been putting pressure on to ditch the controversial Italian supplier, as well as that no one's got rich by second guessing BCE, the smart money remains on Pirelli hanging around. Bernie wants to continue to use the rubber as a means of spicing up the show via deliberate degradation it is thought; Michelin is more cool on the idea. So that presumably is that. His rather earnest defence of Pirelli in Monza seemed to rather cement the idea.