Politics is the second name of F1.
Now it has been triggered by Michael Schumacher's comments about tyres.
Michael Schumacher expressed his displeasure regarding the heavy degradation of Pirelli tyres after the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Schumacher was quoted as saying "I had to drive at a pace to manage the tyres to finish with tyres left over. We should question whether that should be the case. It is unsatisfying and not what a Formula 1 event should be."
He further added that "If 80 or 90% complain, maybe Pirelli should think about it."
However, the director of Pirelli Motorsports Mr. Paul Hembery hit back at Michael Schumacher. Rather than denying Michael's opinion that high tyre degradation is not good for Formula 1, he choose to discredit Michael Schumacher by saying "Formula one has always been a meritocracy - in the end the best engineers and drivers will always succeed."
Since Michael Schumacher hasn't been in the Podium since he has made his come back, Paul Hembery is suggesting that Michael is not good and his opinion doesn't count.
Latching on to the situation is Nico Rosberg. This young german teammate of Michael Schumacher, has always tried to attack or show Michael in a less then positive light, albeit in a subtle manner.
Rosberg in an interview to Autosport responded by saying "No. It's just a very different game. We have seen already this year that when you go from one condition to another, one racetrack to another, on temperature to another... different cars are better on tyres, so there's a very big engineering challenge to understand why, to adapt and to try and be the one to understand the tyres best..."
In the first two races of the season Michael Schumacher was much faster that Rosberg but unfortunately could not score many points. In China, Rosberg won and Michael who as running second had to retire due to his wheel not secured during the tyre change. So Rosberg is trying to say that he is better and Michael is not able to adapt.
In a highly competitive environment like F1, Michael Schumacher has won 7 world titles and doesn't suffer from any inferiority complex, unlike his team mate who only won his first race after participating in more than 100 races.
In the latest turn of events, Mark Webber has jumped to defend Pirelli tyres. It may be noted that the performance of Mark Webber of Redbull in the previous season was abysmal. In this year, in the first three Formula 1 races, he did better than his teammate Sebastian Vettel. Vettel bounced back to score a victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix. Also, with Redbull cars doing well in the hot weather of Bahrain than the previous cold and wet races, it is normal that they don't want to say anything bad against Pirelli.
We haven't heard the last of this different kind of war over tyres. We will keep you updated as and when the various protagonists decide to fire....
