Pirelli CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera said that the company will seek to extend its F1 tire contract from '17 provided it is "happy with the regulations and costs are affordable," according to Alan Baldwin of REUTERS. The FIA "issued a tender this week for a sole supplier" from '17-19. Tronchetti said, "We intend to stay if the regulations are the ones we agree upon, and if the costs are affordable, and the guarantees we want to have in the contracts are accepted." Tronchetti Provera said that "he was against a proposal to allow teams a free choice of dry tire compounds" but suggested there could be a "satisfactory compromise." He said, "We have to provide a guarantee of the product. I think the responsibility to choose the tires remains, and has to remain, in our hands because we don’t want our tires not to be used properly" (REUTERS, 5/23). In a separate piece, Baldwin wrote Pirelli is seen as a favorite to continue but the FIA "has not ruled out a switch to
bigger tires, with Michelin favoring 18-inch ones and likely to tender
if a rule change was accepted." Michelin Motorsport Dir Pascal Couasnon said, "The chief reason why we want to
switch to 18-inch tires is that they permit the development of new
technologies that can be used for mass-produced road tires." Couasnon said that "he felt the idea of bigger tires
was gaining ground, with the new electric Formula E series already using
them and junior formulae such as Formula Renault 3.5 also preparing for
a change." He added, "It seems to me that it's a move that makes sense" (REUTERS, 5/23).
