Even the white stripe that runs on Bridgestone tires softer compounds can be a motive for controversy, especially for Italians who have the tendency to make mountains out of molehills.
Bridgestone began applying the white markings supposedly to help other rider’s know what rivals are using, but it was really to help TV audiences get a better understanding of who is using what.
Valentino Rossi who won Sunday’s race at the ‘Ring, looked like he was using the hard compound on his front tire and if anyone wanted to copy his choice would have certainly been misled.
TV monitors showed Rossi’s tire choice as hard/hard, but according to Davide Brivio, Fiat Yamaha’s team manager told commentators that the softer compound was being used on the front.
Heaven forbid, Brivio spilled the beans, now Rossi and his team have been accused of scrubbing off the markings to take an unfair advantage, even comparing it to what the team did in Qatar in 2004, when the night before the race, members of the Yamaha team went to Rossi’s grid place and swept the area clean and laid down some rubber using a scooter and Rossi got penalized and sent to the back row.
Now everyone is asking, isn’t there some rule against this, why didn’t anyone ask Rossi about the white marking, who took off the markings, was it done on purpose to mislead everyone, what are the other teams thinking of doing?Like I said, mountains out of molehills.