No decision on tyre problems

Although teams and the FIA have agreed that there will be no more major rule changes this year, it seems the tyre debate is unresolved. The rule that allows teams only one choice of wet tyre for a race weekend caused havoc in Brazil when the intermediate option, picked by everyone, was inadequate for the torrential rain.

FIA president Max Mosley shrugged it off, saying he didn't understand why teams had not picked wet tyres instead of intermediates when the conditions in Brazil are notoriously changeable. Some teams want the rule changed to allow two wet tyre choices but the matter remains unsolved.

"I think it's obvious that there were five teams who wanted to change it and five teams who didn't, so it didn't get anywhere," said Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn. "The problem is that we are a competitive business. So, even if you have a statutory wet tyre with a certain land-to-sea ratio and depth of groove, the compounds would be selected to allow that type of tyre to work in optimum conditions, so they may not work in other conditions."

"Either it would be a very hard compound because we wanted it to work in, say, medium to dry conditions and needed a tyre that lasted. But where that wouldn't work would be in the very wettest conditions. Or the opposite -- a very soft compound that worked well in the rain but in conditions that were merely damp would be very unstable.

"The nature of the business is that we try to beat each other. If there was one tyre company I could accept that we could have a statutory tyre that we could all race on. It would still be a compromise but you wouldn't be pushed in a certain direction. But, with two tyre companies, the only option really is to have two types of tyre."