Formula One news: Bridgestone announces tyre compounds for last four rounds
Bridgestone has announced the compound that would be used for the last four races of 2010 season.
They are the official tyre suppliers to Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), for the Formula One World Championship.
While giving the final briefing for the last four races of the season, Bridgestone told, “There will be a gap of one step between allocated compounds for each of the final four tyre allocations.”
As per the announced schedule all the teams would be using the super-soft and medium compounds for the Brazilian Grand Prix that is to take place on 7th of November. The same tyres would be used at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which marks the last race of the season and would be staged at the Yas Marina Circuit on 14th of November, thus winding up the 2010 season.
While on the other hand, hard and soft rubber tyres have been allocated for the Japanese Grand Prix, which is to be showcased at the Suzuka Track on 8th of October.
At the Yeongam Circuit, which would mark the inaugural Korean Grand Prix at the last week of October, the conventional hard and soft rubber tyres would be used.
The Director of Motorsport Tyre Development Hirohide Hamashima, while talking to the press said that the most interesting and tactical question for them was to finalise the tyres that would be used for the Korean Grand Prix, as this year is to mark the first-ever race on the newly-built track. He further stated that since the track is entirely new, they wanted to derive right calculations from all the stats and data that had been collected so far.
He additionally explained that whenever there is a new track on the calendar, things tend to became a little tough and they prefer to work even more closely with FIA, and the same had been done this time again for Korea. Moreover, he told that very detailed study of the circuit had been carried by them, before making the final decision along with extensive discussions with all the teams to get their input and suggestions.
He also explained that besides everything else, the safety of the drivers and everyone else close the circuit is kept in mind that is why they collectively decided to go for the conservative side for this first race on the Korean Track.
He concluded telling, “The tyres for Korea are currently being shipped to the track and we are very interested to see this new facility when we go there in seven weeks time. Suzuka puts the tyres through a tough workout so we have the harder combination of hard and soft, whilst Sao Paulo and Yas Marina suit the softer combination of super soft and medium. Due to the nature of the tracks, there were no further opportunities for a hard - super soft allocation, although we did evaluate this after the lessons learnt at Hockenheim."
Bridgestone, the tyre and rubber industry giant had been working closely with Formula One now for over a decade. They had been supplying tyres to the sport for past 13 years.
In the year 2007 they became the sole tyre suppliers to all the teams, all through the season, and since then they had maintained their monopoly in FIA.
However, the Tokyo-based company stated at the start of this year that they do not want to renew their contract with Formula One, which is to expire at the end of the 2010 season.
Now, the Italian company Pirelli has been signed in June 2010 to carry on with the sport from 2011 onwards. Initially a contract for three years had been signed between 2011 and 2013, which is expected to extend depending upon the satisfaction of FIA as well as the teams.
Tags: