Alonso Salutes New Tire Policy in Formula One

Fernando Alonso is one of the first drivers to salute the new policy adopted by Formula One tire manufacturer Bridgestone concerning tire allocations for the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix. As of Hungaroring, the Japanese company will bring consecutive tire compounds for at least half of the races left to tackle in 2009.

Due to the circuits characteristics at Hungaroring, Valencia, Spa and Monza, consecutive tire compounds will make racing safer and more show-inclined this year, argued the company's director of tire development Hirohide Hamashima earlier this month. Until now, Bridgestone had brought non-consecutive tire compounds at each of the 9 races this season, something that drivers (in particular) were not very fond of.

The gap in tire allocation consequently led to a huge gap in on-track performances for the F1 cars, as the tires obviously behaved differently in terms of getting up to temperature. That meant the cars running on super soft tires (in qualifying, at least) were recording lap times some 3 or even 4 seconds better than on medium or hard tires.

This will no longer be a problem for the F1 drivers – at least on the 4 aforementioned tracks – and Alonso admits he is excited about the change.

“That means fewer lottery. It's simply not fun, five seconds slower than the rest to drive, if the soft tire collapses. It is also not good for the image of Formula 1, as in the middle of the race cars are suddenly very slow or a tire stint would last no longer than 7 laps,” argued Alonso.