Michelin is ready to return to F1 in 2017

After turning its back on Formula 1 at the end of the 2006 season due to a disagreement regarding the rule limiting to a single tire supplier, Michelin is now inclined to take on this role starting from the 2017 season.

Indeed, the contract that binds Pirelli, the current supplier, and Formula 1 will end on this date, and Pascal Couasnon, the director of the French company, has announced Michelin’s desire to return to the discipline: “We are open to supplying tires in a monopoly position, with a single supplier,” he stated in the columns of Autosprint.

The technical challenge that the discipline has represented for a few years now seems to attract the French manufacturer once again: « The tires must offer stable levels of performance and grip. It is not normal that, after a few laps, a driver says, “I have to slow down otherwise the tires won’t last.” This shouldn’t happen. Right now, Formula 1 drivers can’t show their talent because the tires won’t allow them. This is what happens when you are in a sole supplier position and have no motivation to improve. This is called mediocrity, not technology. »

An observation that should please Paul Hembery, the director of Pirelli, whose choices are often criticized by the teams and their drivers.

« If instead of that, you have a technologically interesting regulation, even if you are a sole supplier, you are obliged to offer a product at its best level. » Continues Couasnon. « Tires must become a technical object again, not just a tool to deliver a greater or lesser spectacle. Michelin has highlighted certain specific conditions to return to Formula 1. We particularly want 18-inch tires, which we already use in Formula E. If Formula 1 wants to consider our proposals, we are here, completely open to discussion, with a strong desire to return. »