Big fat slicks seen at the recent Bathurst 12 hours. As it was a dry race there was no need for wet tyres although all teams had sets ready just in case. The quantity of tyres used in these endurance races is extraordinary. The tyre fitters from the tyre suppliers were flat out in the heat fitting tyres to wheels for the whole race.
I don't know how much one of these tyres costs but I would hazard a guess at approaching $800 per tyre. Motor racing is an expensive business.
At the Le Mans 24 hours there is a whole huge paddock devoted to the tyre supplier's trucks and for the whole 24 hours teams are shuttling back and forth with tyres.
For 2017 Formula 1 goes back to big fat tyres. Hooray. Real racing cars should make a lot of noise and have big fat tyres. This wonderful shot below from my archive taken at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza in 1981 shows how it used to be.
There are a host of rule changes for F1 in 2017 designed to improve the closeness of the racing and to enhance spectator appeal. The really good news in that Liberty Media have completed the takeover of the F1 rights and the very obnoxious Bernie Ecclestone has been shown the door. The new rights holders are committed to turning the sport around but they have a big job ahead of them. After sacking Bernie - by phone apparently-I would have done it by SMS myself- they need to find a way to sack Lewis Hamilton. Then they need to get stuck into bringing about more fundamental rule changes for 2018 and in particular dumping the stupid DRS rules. But at least their first move was the right one.
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