Michelin is said to have dropped its proposed price for a supply of F1 tyres for 2011 in a bid to convince the teams and the FIA that it is the most logical candidate.
Sources suggest that the original figure of €5m per team for a season has been dramatically reduced to just €1.5m. That is far more acceptable to the smaller teams, who this year – like everyone else – have been getting Bridgestones for free.
If as planned there are 13 teams next year, that figure would give Michelin a handy €19.5m with which to kick start its programme.
The battle for the tyre contract has become more complicated since Pirelli joined Cooper Avon and Michelin in the bid process. Michelin’s trump card is its relatively recent experience of F1, albeit with grooved tyres rather than slicks. McLaren and Mercedes are among those pushing for the French manufacturer.
Michelin had been asking for a move to 18ins rims, but the teams want the change delayed until 2013. Then it can be a part of a major new rules package, which will include a new turbo engine. Teams say it is already too late to add a change of tyre sizes to 2011 car designs.
“I think we understand that the tyre companies are very keen on a larger wheel because it brings a better efficiency of tyre,” said Ross Brawn. “We’re welcoming that, but it’s just a question of phasing it in, and I think that if there was an 18 inch rim, it’s very late at the moment and I think it would give a lot of the teams severe challenges and severe problems to get ready in time, because it’s not just having a bigger wheel, an 18 inch tyre behaves differently and you would need to develop the suspension systems and the other things you would need for it.”
One of the problems is that everything inside the wheel – brakes, uprights etc – would in theory have to be adapted to fill the much larger space. The only alternative would be for the FIA to force teams to stick to a ‘virtual’ 13ins area inside the larger rim, at least for a season or two.
Ferrari’s Also Costa explained: “If you have 18 inch wheels and you are allowed to use all the space inside the rim for your brake system, for your cooling, for your aerodynamic development of the corner, as Ross mentioned, it would be a very, very big programme. Starting in May or June is very, very late, also for all the companies that make brake components because they have to study new calipers, new discs and for the team with completely new suspensions it would be a big programme.
“Everyone in the FOTA group would like to have a more phased-in programme. Even if we had to start with the 18 inch rims, at least the inside of the rim in terms of mechanical parts and braking system should be kept similar to this year and then evolve over the next few years.”
One other key issue concerns how the early testing will be done, and there are suggestions that Toyota could provide a contemporary car for that purpose, so that no current team would be favoured.
To further complicate the transition to a new manufacturer, tyre warmers will be banned from next year.
Adam Cooper F1 
Why are people constantly trying to ban tyre warmers as if they cost millions to develop or operate?
These things exist, every team got theirs already, and its not like there’s any development race going on there. Why throw away perfectly working devices? What is wrong with those people?
I don’t think Michelin should even be considered as a supplier due to their past transgressions. The company’s performance in the USGP at Indianapolis should alert every party that this is not a brand to be trusted.