Thank you and goodbye Bridgestone

[Dave B]

14 seasons, and incredible 700,000 tyres, no serious incidents, and precious little credit as the general public regard tyres as boring.

Bridgestone have made a huge contribution to F1, and they deserve congratulations.

Pirelli have big shoes to fill.

[Daniel]

Yes and hello crappy Pirelli. If the last time they competed against Michelin in the WRC is any indication of how good they are then we're in for an "interesting" year. Lets just hope that none of the races are a couple of degrees warmer or cooler than they were expecting :rolleyes:

Good work Bridgestone :up:

[Mark]

A lot to be proud of since they came into F1 in 1997 and shook things up with the complacent Goodyear and I especially remember Damon Hill's almost win that year.

[steveaki13]

Sorry I just posted another thread on this a minute to late so that needs to be closed or ignored.

Yes I agree well done Bridgeston.

Sorry for the double thread again.

Obviously great minds think alike Dave. :)

[AndyL]

Sorry I just posted another thread on this a minute to late so that needs to be closed or ignored.

Yes I agree well done Bridgeston.

Sorry for the double thread again.

Obviously great minds think alike Dave. :)

Doh! Just as I was replying to your thread as well Aki...


If Pirelli can do half as well then we should be OK next year.

I just wanted to agree with you that it'll be good if Pirelli do half as well as Bridgestone... assuming by that you meant the softer tyres should last 20 laps instead of 40 ;)

[UltimateDanGTR]

14 seasons, and incredible 700,000 tyres, no serious incidents, and precious little credit as the general public regard tyres as boring.

Bridgestone have made a huge contribution to F1, and they deserve congratulations.

Pirelli have big shoes to fill.

well said.

thanks to bridgestone, and good luck pirelli.

[steveaki13]

Doh! Just as I was replying to your thread as well Aki...



I just wanted to agree with you that it'll be good if Pirelli do half as well as Bridgestone... assuming by that you meant the softer tyres should last 20 laps instead of 40 ;)

;)

Yep.

There has been alot of negative attitude towards Pirelli so far, lets give them some benefit of the doubt until the opening race weekend of 2011 to judge.

[Daniel]

There has been alot of negative attitude towards Pirelli so far, lets give them some benefit of the doubt until the opening race weekend of 2011 to judge.

Gawd I wish you had seen the state of the Pirelli's on the Subaru's back in New Zealand in 2003 or 2004 (I forget which). The tyres disintegrated and lost the WHOLE tread section after only a couple of stages. Pirelli have not demonstrated the ability to make a decent competition tyre and I can't believe they were chosen.

[Sonic]

Well said, Bridgestone have served F1 well, but perhaps it is time for a change?

It is (just) possible that their tyres have been too good and with the Pirelli reputation for poor competition tyres perhaps we'll see a mix up in the order with silky smooth drivers like Jenson coming to the fore.

Roll on 2011. :)

[fandango]

14 seasons, and incredible 700,000 tyres, no serious incidents, and precious little credit as the general public regard tyres as boring.

Bridgestone have made a huge contribution to F1, and they deserve congratulations.

Pirelli have big shoes to fill.

I think I'm with the general public on this one. I think more tyre wear would be better in the races, but it's not good publicity for the tyre makers, so they'll just have to be those roundy black things.

[rickos]

Does Pirelli make golf clubs?
I play a J33R 460 @ 8.5° from Bridgestone. Never liked their off road tires though. Not beefy enough.

[truefan72]

here is hoping pirelli can do as good of a job as Bridgestone did.

I

[ShiftingGears]

Did a fine job. :up:

[wattoroos]

on thursday and friday we will be able to compare them but i think bridgestone will have them covered but anything can happen

[jens]

Bridgestone came into F1 with basically a big bang, when they were instantly on pace and creating headaches to top teams despite initially working with midfield outfits like Prost, Arrows and Stewart. One year on and they clinched the championship titles in a battle against Goodyear after starting to collaborate with top teams (McLaren, Benetton). Especially in the beginning of the season B was significantly superior to the G tyre. Then later in another duel with Michelin they faced some tough periods (2003, 2005), when all top teams except Ferrari had ran away to rivals.

But Bridgestone has been really committed to F1 in these years and while others have left (Goodyear, Michelin), they have opted to stay. But shame that the tyres have been way too hard in 2010 - lasting for a full race without any notable problems. So perhaps it was a sign that it's time for a change now.

[V12]

Congratulations Bridgestone for all wins and titles earned between 1997 and 2006.

That is all.

[wedge]

A lot to be proud of since they came into F1 in 1997 and shook things up with the complacent Goodyear and I especially remember Damon Hill's almost win that year.

Bridgestone have been great in motorsport as a whole. Just look at Rossi and Pedrosa pooh-poohing over their Michelins and wanting the 'stones and even Goodyear's complacency in CART, let alone F1.

[N. Jones]

14 seasons, and incredible 700,000 tyres, no serious incidents, and precious little credit as the general public regard tyres as boring.

Bridgestone have made a huge contribution to F1, and they deserve congratulations.

Pirelli have big shoes to fill.

Pirelli can come in along as the FIA gets rid of that stupid tire rule. Let everyone race on whatever they want.

[ryan92]

There is no denying that Bridgestone have grown as a company since their success in Formula 1. They are now a well known, respected tyre company.

But, that is why Bridgestone are pulling out: they don't need to do control deals any more, like Michelin, people know who they are and know they make good tyres.

I have a feeling they will withdraw from MotoGP unless there is competition

Goodbye Bridgestone, thank you so much for the years of hard work you have put into our sport.

[Sleeper]

Bridgestones have been great supporters of F1, but I'll be glad to see the end of their overly conservative tires with weird grip characteristics.

And Daniel, the last time Pirelli went circuit racing was in 2006/7 in GT's, and their tires were at least as good as the Michellins, so proberly a better indicater than rallying on gravel.

[V12]

Pirelli have had their moments, around the turn of the millennium they probably had the better tyre in WRC - well in certain conditions anyway, even making Ford switch to them for a couple of years.

And of course their qualifying specials which led to a few interesting qualifying performances from smaller teams in the late 80s/early 90s.

I guess that's the thing though, Pirelli could be interesting for the sport if there was competition - in this situation it is basically like Bridgestone with a different name. And the fact they are considering making deliberately inferior compounds and forcing teams to run them for part of the race sums up the state of the sport in this area really.

P.S. I should probably credit Bridgestone for their 2007 wins as well, since the control tyre rules didn't officially come in until 2008, but Michelin withdrew a year early. Otherwise I'd have to take away all those Goodyear and Dunlop wins when they were sole supplier through choice rather than through regulation too.

[52Paddy]

I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of tyre Pirelli can muster up for the coming season. The cars have changed so much since Pirelli were last in the sport so it will be a challenge for them. Mind you, I doubt they're referring much to date from the 1980s anyway :p :

Still, though, I can't help but thinking how fun it would be to have a tyre war back for 2011.