Pirelli ready to fight if F1 brings back a tyre war - Isola

If Formula 1 ever decides to let multiple tyre suppliers compete against each other, Pirelli would be ready to engage says F1 boss Mario Isola.

The Italian company has been the sport's exclusive supplier since 2011,but five years earlier, Michelin and Bridgestone were pitted against each other during F1's last season of open competition between tyre manufacturers.

Isola believes a tyre rivalry would introduce new challenges, with performance as the suppliers' singe focus.

"If they decide to come back to this situation as we said in the past, we are ready to face also this new challenge,'' Isola said.

"It is a new challenge because if you're a sole supplier you have some targets.

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"You supply the same tyres to everybody so you can have a tyre with high degradation, with different targets.

"If we are in competition with our tyre supplier the target is just performance. It is clear. It's like for teams.

"Their target is safety for sure but safety is a target, it's always there, it's always a priority but after that it's just performance.''

The Italian warns however that supply costs would likely escalate in the event of a tyre war, and therefore run counter-trend to Formula 1's aim of reining in the costs of competing for teams.

"The direction of Formula One is still to have one supplier,'' Isola added.

"Obviously what is changing quickly but the single supplier is saving money for everybody. If you introduce, again, what they call the ''tyre war'' or multiple suppliers you have to consider that in the past it was necessary to have additional test sessions or in the past the teams had a proper tyre test team and obviously this means additional costs.

"If they want to reduce the cost, this is probably not the right direction.''

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