Pirelli (and in particular its Formula 1 test driver Pedro Del La Rosa) are promising that this upcoming Formula 1 race season will be like no other.

We already knew things were going to be different simply based on Pirelli’s unique flair. In addition, the excitement felt internally throughout Pirelli will burst forth once the season begins, adding another dimension to the circus that is Formula 1 racing.

As for the tires, De La Rosa says that the new Pirelli race tires are “very different” to the tires produced by Bridgestone, which will inevitably lead to “more interesting” races.

Well, that’s a good thing because what F1 doesn’t need is another season of the same team winning every week. With improved tires and after eliminating fuel stops for last season, teams could get through an entire race one stop, reducing opportunities for lead changes.

It wasn’t the fault of the tires that F1 2010 was a snooze fest, to be sure, but something has to change lest we revert even further back.

More colorful tires are also coming. Whereas Bridgestone provided two different non-wet tires, Pirelli is coming with three, and will color-code the words ‘Pirelli P Zero’ on the sidewall to designate which is which. According to press reports, red will designate super soft compounds, blue will be used for medium treads, and yellow will grace the hard compound dry slicks. Full wet tires will feature an all-yellow sidewall with red highlights. There was no word if an intermediate wet tire will be made available.

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The headline alone captured my immediate attention.

“Morry Taylor Speaks!” read the top of the page on Slate.com for an article written by David Weigel, who was doing a story on the potential presidential run of a political outsider.

Taylor, who took his own outsider pass at the White House back in 1996, was contacted for the story. Certainly, Morry’s comments on the subject are interesting. What’s worth a big bravo are Taylor’s comments regarding the effectiveness of politicians in the fifth paragraph below:

“As I was looking into Herman Cain’s run for president, I thought about another businessman who thought he saw an opening for a non-politician, jumped into the Republican primary, and wound up with minor fame but no delegates. That was Morry Taylor, the chairman and CEO of Titan International, who ran in 1996 and became, for some reason, a favorite subject of TNR election correspondent Michael Lewis.

I called Taylor and asked if he thought Cain could do what he never could.
‘Heck yeah,’ said Taylor. ‘It depends on how he promotes himself. You can’t get anywhere until you have name recognition. He’s got to get his name recognition up, and generally you do that through going on television. If you’re not on talk shows you’ve got no chance.’ That said, he didn’t know much about Cain, and his preferred 2012 candidate would be automotive tycoon Roger Penske.

‘Roger’s a leader,’ he said. ‘He’s a billionaire.’ Taylor seemed perplexed when I said I hadn’t heard of Penske.

Taylor started running in 1995 because he thought the success of Ross Perot proved that Americans were sick of politicians. At the time, though, he quickly became a novelty candidate. Had the current economic climate changed this? Did a novice politician have a chance? Sure. Now, he said, the annoyance with the political class was even starker.

‘Today, I think the American public is more receptive to somebody like that because, you know, for years the politicians, no disrespect – there’re all smart, they’re all nice people, and they all want to be liked,’ he said. ‘But they have almost no idea how to run anything. You cannot run anything and be always worried about how you’ll be perceived. Every state in the union is in trouble. They’re bankrupt.’

He gave me an example. ‘I was with the governor of Illinois the other day. Pat Quinn. He’s talking to the six of us business guys. I had to say, finally, ‘You’ve put this state in bankruptcy. You’re so far below, you’re in so deep, you’re not even solvent.’ He’s raised taxes 66% and it doesn’t even cover half of the deficit! Jesus! His background probably was political science or history – it sure wasn’t math!’

Taylor informed me that he had to run back to lunch – ‘I’ve got my bride here,’ he said – but asked me to follow up with his office. ‘They’ll send you copy of the Michael Lewis book,’ said Taylor. ‘He wrote about me and as an afterthought he wrote about John McCain. I told him back in 1996, you should follow John McCain!’”