Michelin, Bridgestone Planning to Stay in F1

French tyre manufacturer Michelin and rival Bridgestone are not planning to withdraw from Formula One in the near future despite the FIA's intention to have a single supplier in the sport.

The sport's ruling body and the teams discussed earlier this year a list of radical changes to the sport, including the introduction of one tyre supplier that will be contracted by the FIA, who planned to invite the major tyre makers to tender for the right.

Back in May, Michelin said they were not interested in becoming the sole tyre supplier.

"We don't like this idea at all," Michelin's sporting director Pierre Dupasquier told Atlas F1 in May. "Every time we entered officially into racing, it was with a partner - and in order to try, along with him, to help him be better than the opposition.

"The opposition included one of our [tyre] competitors. So in that aspect, being the sole tyre supplier, will not help in any way any of our partners, since everybody will have the same tyres."

With January 1st being the deadline for tyre suppliers' notice of withdrawal from Formula One for 2006, a Michelin spokesman has exclusively confirmed to Atlas F1 that the French company has no intention of leaving the sport in the near future.

"No intention whatsoever, and no notice to the FIA," said a Michelin official when asked whether the company was leaving Formula One in view of moves by the sport's controlling body. "Certainly none that I have heard, and I would be amongst the first to know."

Michelin rivals Bridgestone said earlier this year that the company was committed to staying in Formula One despite the FIA's plans. The Japanese tyre maker reiterated their commitment today.

"Bridgestone reiterates that it has no intention of withdrawing from Formula One, and has always made clear that it desires to be in Formula One and support it in the long term," a spokesperson told Atlas F1. "It has not given the FIA any form of notice of withdrawal."