A few weeks ago at Le Mans, I stepped into the tire tent, where Michelin was open about its disdain for the F1 tire program. The 13-inch tires used in the pinnacle of motorsport don't teach manufacturers much about real-world tire physics or composition because the tire construction is so different. The Michelin guys thank their lucky stars they don't have to build F1 tires any more and can instead focus on the 18-inch LMP1 tire program, which allows them to collect data they can use to engineer better tires for road cars.

RELATED: "God help a team" that loses a Michelin racing tire

It looks like Pirelli is reaching the same conclusion in F1; they've had enough of the 13-inch tire nonsense too. Based on what I learned from Michelin, these programs are so ludicrously expensive that if you're not scraping every iota of data out of every race, you're pouring money into a huge pit and igniting it with race fuel.

This is an 18-inch F1 tire next to the current 13-inch tire—a dramatic difference:





Pirelli and Lotus aren't expecting am immediate rule change. Pirelli's contract is up in 2017, and that's when Formula 1 might make the switch to bigger tires—perhaps even larger than 18 inches. According to Autosport, Pirelli's motorsport director thinks 19- or 20-inch rubber is the way to go. In the meantime, the 18-inch tires will go on Lotus F1's cars during testing as Pirelli makes the case to the F1 brass.