British formula one teams McLaren and Williams have held a secret meeting with motor racing’s governing body, the F1A, in an attempt to find a solution to what they regard as new tyre rule changes, which they fear will hand Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher a record sixth title.
The Italian team, which uses Bridgestone tyres, claims rivals Williams and McLaren have been using illegal tyres supplied by French manufacturer Michelin and have threatened to contend every Grand Prix result this season.
Ron Dennis, the McLaren chairman, and MD Martin Whitmarsh were joined by Frank Williams and his technical director Patrick Head when they met Charlie Whiting, the F1A technical delegate, at McLaren’s headquarters in an attempt prevent their cars being handicapped in the last three races of the season.
”Potentially, this whole affair is throwing the world championship out of the window for both of us,” Whitmarsh told The Guardian newspaper.
”We talked at length to Charlie, but there is still a considerable concern about the issue of approving the tyres’ conformity at the end of the race, even though Michelin have produced some new rubber, which we tested at Monza last week.
”Put simply, we can either use the existing tyres and risk not conforming with these revised rule interpretations or we can use new tyres and still risk being illegal despite a loss of performance,” he said.
”Michelin has done a great job, but the changes in set-up we have had to make — to toe-in, camber and tyre pressures — have not worked to our advantage.”
Last week, Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn claimed measurements taken after last month’s Hungarian Grand Prix when Schumacher was lapped by winner Fernando Alonso’s Michelin-shod Renault proved the tyres were illegal.
Schumacher leads Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya by one point and Kimi Raikkonen of McLaren by two.
A protest could lead to the championship being decided in a courtroom. Michelin says its tyres have been approved by FIA, which has issued a ruling since last month’s Hungarian Grand Prix, saying there will be new checks on tyres after races to ensure teams are not using more than the permitted maximum tread width.
Michelin has built new tyres for the next week’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza in an attempt to avoid further controversy. These have been tested at Monza in Italy for the last week. — Sapa-AFP