Originally Posted by
Radio Active
Where in the rules does it say about a control tyre for 12th?
I think it is a cop out to say one driver/company is too good in condition X so we'll just legislate against it. It's up to the competition to raise their game. Also Masami is retired.
Rule 2.0.4 on the first page of the rule book.....
It's more to do with saving companies thousands of $/£/€ on testing for a 1 off event to find that "magic" tyre... Just like what happened at the WC in Bangkok.
It's the exact same reason that TC had limited the number of tires allowed as in past events when testing, it was utterly pointless to go on track with 1 run old tires as at the actual event, you were running new tires every round of qualifying.
Assume 1 TC driver (any driver, factory or not) went to test for a WC, assume they did a 2 day test, 8 runs per day, that's 16 sets of rubber needing to be used for 1 test. And at the price they RRP at in the UK £25, that's £400 on rubber alone for 1 driver, for 2 days.
And that's just assuming you know the control rubber tyre.
The cost rises exponentially when you factor in 12th on Tarmac and have no clue which tire will be best, or size....
And that's why 12th will be a control tire if it were to be held on Tarmac.