Are the crashes the fault of the tyre? Or the fault of the rider?
Both really. The rider's the one who's in control and has to adapt to his machinery, but equally if the tyre is unpredictable and lets go without warning, there's not much a rider can do except not ride fast. The Bridgestones might not be so bad at this, if it weren't for the fact that they're so effective and grippy that any losses of adhesion that do happen occur at very high speeds. And anyway, these cold-tyre accidents seem to happen to the best riders indiscriminately. So perhaps saying that Stoner, Lorenzo, Spies aren't riding well enough is moot.
As I said though, the fault may lie elsewhere, it could be that teams have adapted their chassis and suspensions to get the most out of the Bridgestones, and as a consequence turned a quite safe tyre into a quite dangerous one. It's always been the way that riders and teams will take unpalatable risks, rather than be left behind.
I don't think using a control tyre that's so finicky about operating temperatures and riding styles is particularly beneficial to the other elements of the competition. Anyhow, Bridgestone say they're going to go away and rethink their constructions for next year, so perhaps Something Is Being Done.
Edited by Risil, 30 November 2011 - 20:34.
