Formula One
Michelin has revealed that an eighth team has approached Michelin looking for a Formula supply agreement. Michelin stated that since its return to Formula One it has noticed an imbalance of teams requesting its tyres, with seven teams currently using its products.
The FIA senate has recommended that the World Motor Sport Council reverses the guilty verdict it imposed on seven Formula One teams following the US Grand Prix. It is anticipated that this recommendation will be put to the World Motor Sport Council by means of a fax vote in the next few days.
As many as two million motorists in the UK are putting their lives at risk by never checking their tyre pressure or tread, according to a survey launched by the RAC foundation today. The warning comes at the start of “National Think Before You Drive Month”, which is launched by the RAC Foundation in association with the FIA Foundation, Bridgestone.
FIA, the world motorsports governing body, has found the seven F1 teams that pulled out of the US Grand Prix guilty on two charges, but has deferred punishment. The compromise is seen as a way of buying time for the international motorsports series to recover. The teams – Renault, McLaren, Williams, Toyota, Sauber, Red Bull and BAR – were found guilty of failing to arrive at Indianapolis with proper tyres and wrongfully refusing to allow their cars to race after Michelin issued a safety warning.
However, the teams were cleared of charges of failing to inform race stewards of their intention not to race, refusing to race subject to a speed limit and combining to put on a spectacle damaging to Formula One. Punishment was deferred until 14 September. The FIA cannot punish Michelin directly.
MAM Software has announced that it has completed the successful installation and commissioning of a new Autopart business management system at independent tyre retail chain Formula One Autocentres. The new system is now fully operational and is being productively used in all 37 Formula One stores across the South, South East and the Midlands.
The installation of this new Autopart software has given Formula One Autocentres a fully integrated system capable of supporting their fast-fit, servicing and MoT business. The system links over 100 users with a central database at the company’s head office in Stevenage. Using dedicated communication technology developed by MAM, it enables Formula One to maintain data centrally and pool statistics from each of its 37 branches. It also provides the ability to transfer stock between branches whenever required.
Formula 1’s governing body, the FIA, has published charges against the seven Michelin supplied teams that declined to take part in Sunday’s disastrous US Grand Prix. The International Automobile Federation (FIA) said teams had “committed one or more acts prejudicial to the interests of a competition and the interests of motor sport in general.”
Specific charges alleged that teams failed to ensure that they had a supply of suitable tyres for the race. Perhaps most controversially, the teams were also accused of making “a demonstration damaging to the image of Formula One by pulling into the pits immediately before the start of the race”.
Bridgestone has put itself forward to be the sole F1 tyre supplier if Max Mosley’s 2008 regulations come into place.
“We want to showcase our technology,” said the manufacturer’s technical manager Hisao Suganuma, “even with a one make situation. We want to be in Formula One.”
FIA president, Mosley, claims that imposing a single slick tyre would improve safety and reduce the need to test.
It will also ensure that no team is affected by being “contracted to the ‘wrong’ supplier”, an FIA dossier read.
The 2006 World Rally Championship will not be a battle between Pirelli and Michelin, but BFGoodrich and Pirelli. The French manufacturer has decided to substitute Michelin name for the brand that uses to compete in the Rally Raid World Cup.
Bridgestone has added Volkswagen’s latest Golf model, the Golf Plus, to its list of OE fitments for the Potenza RE050.
The new vehicle has a variety of different engine options, ranging from the entry-level 1.4-litre version, to a 2.0-litre GT FSI engine delivering 150PS (148bhp). The Formula One derived tyres are described as complimenting the Golf Plus’ sporty characteristics.
Andy Lane, marketing manager at Bridgestone UK, said: “We are thrilled that Volkswagen has chosen Bridgestone tyres for the new Golf Plus. It already looks like mirroring the popularity of the Golf, and the Potenza RE050 tyres will provide the same excellent grip and performance for this exciting new model.”
Rival teams have blamed Ferrari’s poor start to the Formula One season on its Bridgestone tyres. Speaking in a press conference prior to the Monaco Grand Prix, Michelin supplied drivers including Red Bull Racing’s David Coulthard, Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella and McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen all pointed to inferior Japanese rubber as the reason for Ferrari’s struggles.
(Akron/Tire Review) Associated Press has reported that nine Formula One teams and five F1 car manufacturers will boycott a meeting this week with the FIA in another move interpreted as increasing their bid for a new grand prix series.
FIA’s meeting on 15 April was reportedly called to discuss 2008 race season regulations. The only race team and constructor committed to attending the meeting is Ferrari, which signed a multi-year deal to remain in F1.
150 vintage vehicles from 11 countries will attempt to resuscitate the spirit of the Gordon Bennett cup 1905, with the support of Michelin and SATCAR. The event, the ancestor of today’s Grand Prix and Formula One races, will be held during the 2005 Automobile Club d’Auvergne2-5 June.
Participants will travel to Clermont-Ferrand from Germany, Austria, the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, France, Switzerland, Mexico and United States to cover the same track as a century ago, a 140 kilometre (90 mile) track at the foot of Puy-de-Dôme at the heart of the Auvergne volcano park.
The line up of cars will include the five vintage cars that actually took part in the Gordon Bennett Cup: two Napier Gordon Bennett (1903), a Mercedes 60 HP 2-Seater (1903), which entered history when Jenatzy won the Gordon Bennett Cup in 1903 in Ireland, a Pope Toledo Gordon Bennett (1905), and a Panhard Levassor Z40 (1905) which will run for the first time since it was revamped.
Pascal Vasselon, former motorsports project manager at Michelin, will soon make a return to the pitlane, this time in a Toyota uniform. According to reports the Frenchman will take up a position in Cologne’s R&D department prior to the San Marino grand prix late next month. Asked what Mr Vasselon’s next move might be, motorsport director Pierre Dupasquier said in Melbourne: “It’s up to him. He loves Formula One.”
Bridgestone and the FIA have launched a joint global road safety campaign. Designed to help reduce road deaths, the ‘Think Before You Drive’ campaign is due to be launched in May at the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix in Barcelona.
The FIA is still deliberating over whether or not to adopt just one tyre supplier for future Formula One series’ according to reports from Autosport magazine.
The association’s president, Max Mosley suggested the change in an effort to cut the F1 teams’ costs, saying that too much of the teams’ budget is spent on testing new compounds.
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