Schumacher's Bespoke Bridgestone Tyres

[Bezza]

Through his dominant 2000-2004 years, at the time I do not recall Schumacher having these bespoke Bridgestone tyres made simply to suit his driving style, giving him an enormous advantage over the rest of the field.

In my opinion its ludicrous that this was allowed to happen. Has this secret been unearthed recently or was it common knowledge at the time?

It certainly devalues his dominant ability of those years. Surely, if he was so good, he could use the same tyres as everybody else? I’d say it devalues his career more so than his 2010-2012 return.

What does everybody else think?

[D-Type]

Bridgestone wanted to win. They listened to the dominant team and their lead driver. It has always been this way. There are countless examples of a team having to work around the tyres supplied, which had been developed for another car and its lead driver's style.
It does not in any way devalue Schumacher's ability; on the contrary it is to his credit that he persuaded a company the size of Bridgestone to manufacture tyres to his requirement (Assuming the initial premise is true). A driver's ability extends beyond simply being able to drive a car he is given as fast as possible. Yes, he does have to be able to adjust his style to suit the car but he also needs to be capable of developing the car and setting it up to handle and perform better overall, and in particular to suit his driving style. In this context tyres are part of the car and its development.

[FAL]

Well Bridgestone weren't going to optimise their tyres to suit Minardi were they?

[Malbec]

Bridgestone wanted to win. They listened to the dominant team and their lead driver. It has always been this way. There are countless examples of a team having to work around the tyres supplied, which had been developed for another car and its lead driver's style.

Likewise Michelin openly focused on the quickest of its teams when developing tyres through the season. Sometimes that was McLaren but at others it was Renault or BAR/Honda.

One could easily argue that Alonso had bespoke tyres when he won his championships with Renault too...

[wedge]

The nature of tyre is that with tyre testing somebody will benefit from it so it might as well be the best driver/team.

Has it harmed Schumi's legacy? No, but only to those blinded the negatives of his dominance.

He was double WDC with Benetton; never had the best tyres from Goodyear in the late 90's - Ferrari were more likely to suffer from blistering; nor did they have bespoke in '06 - Ferrari had to adjust their suspension for the stiffer sidewalls whereas Michelins were suited to Alonso's drving style

[journeyman racer]

Yep, Bridgestone, the unsung hero of Schumacher/Ferrari "domination". The single biggest factor in all their success. I'm often surprised how this is an overlooked factor, I suppose it's convenient to do so. You only have to look specifically at the record over the 04-06 seasons, which swayed from one end to another, and see what was the biggest factor in these wayward results. 13 wins in 04 (including 12 of the first 13), to none (legitimate) in 05, back up to 7 in 06.

But no I'm always going to come across fans that'll say, 04 was all Schumacher, 05 was all Bridgestone's fault*, 06 the car wasn't good enough. :rolleyes:






*In actual fact, even the cheap USGP win was due to Bridgestone making a superior tyre to Michelin on the Indy circuit. Tyres that don't burst under stress are superior to tyres that burst under stress.

[Mark]

Through his dominant 2000-2004 years, at the time I do not recall Schumacher having these bespoke Bridgestone tyres made simply to suit his driving style, giving him an enormous advantage over the rest of the field.

In my opinion its ludicrous that this was allowed to happen. Has this secret been unearthed recently or was it common knowledge at the time?

It certainly devalues his dominant ability of those years. Surely, if he was so good, he could use the same tyres as everybody else? I’d say it devalues his career more so than his 2010-2012 return.

What does everybody else think?

It was common knowledge at the time. There was a rule that the FIA could, at any time, assign any tyre set they liked to any particular team, but then the rule was dropped allowing bespoke tyres to be made, in any case a particular tyre manufacturer would create tyres best suited to whomever they believe would win the championship for them.