Is it just me, or is this a worrying development.
It keeps costs down for the smaller teams based in Europe and North America as they do not have to ship tyres 2/3rd of the way round the world. However they will probably have additional set up cost and contractual issues with their home based tyre suppliers.
Michelin just want a large slice of the Asian market, especially with China. All those new Chinese registered cars need new tyres at some point.