Bridgestone to Change 2010 Tires Due to Wear

Using the Kinetic Energy Recovery System might not be the cleverest thing to do in 2009. Although they have invested a lot of money into developing a functional unit by the start of the upcoming season, the F1 teams might reconsider their position following the latest announcement from the International Automobile Federation (FIA) concerning tire use.

As reported by the GMM news agency, FIA's president Max Mosley revealed that he had asked F1's tire supplier Bridgestone to revise their 2010 compounds. Following the test conducted by most F1 teams throughout the winter, it seems that the rear tires have a much higher level of wear as compared to the front tires.

“We have to admit that we made a mistake. We should have anticipated that the rear tires would be a weak point. We will ask Bridgestone to change the tyre dimensions for 2010,” said Mosley, as reported by the aforementioned source.

The FIA has therefore asked Bridgestone to produce wider rear tires for 2010 – or narrower front ones – in order to solve the tire-wear problem. However, the tire specifications for 2009 will remain unchanged, which will lead to several compromises from the F1 outfits in terms of car setup.

With the existing tires, the F1 teams have two choices for the new season: either they stick to their current car setup and deal with the rear-tire wear problem during races, or change the weight distribution of their 2009 challengers for a better balance. However, such a solution (the latter, that is) would make KERS advantage almost undetectable when used.