New tyre regs to come in near future

A new set of tyre regulations are expected to be given the ok by the FIA in the near future.

Should the new regulations get passed, teams are to be allocated only one set of new tyres, per car, per day of competition. This is to be introduced as an initiative to reduce the costs for the teams.

In the past, teams were able to change tyres at the end of each stage, but costs began to rise, so this was eventually phased out. In the past decade, teams reduced their tyre usage by large amounts, with usage coming down to only two sets per day.

The idea was put forward by FIA President Jean Todt, who is keen to get costs down by reducing tyre usage over the course of a rally.

“When we are talking about running more endurance-style events [and] running one set of tyres per day will cut costs and it can be done.” Todt said.

With a typical day’s rallying in the WRC comprising of over 100Kms of competitive driving and around 300kms of road driving to get to the stages, the tyre companies would have to construct tyres capable of taking such abuse. Michelin have already begun the process of planning for such a radical change.

“By discussing this with the FIA and other tyre manufacturers, like Jean Todt says, we can improve the life of the tyres. We are already working on that but it’s not very long from today until 2012 when the FIA wants this incorporating in to the regulations.” said Nick Shorrock, Director of Michelin’s competition department.

Should the new regulations be brought into force, they would likely be run from 2012 on.