Reading: Bridgestone tyres faced up to one of the toughest challenges of the F1 season

By Alex Kapadia

Bridgestone admitted its tyres faced one of the toughest challenges of the Formula One season during the Belgian Grand Prix yesterday.

Hirohide Hamashima, director of motorsport tyre development for the Japanese tyres manufacturer which is leaving the sport at the end of the season, said: “The Spa weather gave us a very difficult situation, even for our last visit here.

“This was a very tough day for those on track and those on the pit wall. Spa has such a long lap that you cannot be on the correct tyre for an entire lap as the conditions can vary from very wet to damp to dry over the undulating 7km of this fabulous track.

“Judging the level of grip, even when you are not on the correct tyre, is a very important aspect of the art of driving a racing car, so it was a pleasure to watch this art in practice. Even the very best drivers in the world can make mistakes in conditions like we had today, and those who were able to minimise their mistakes were able to achieve good results.”

He added: “Making a perfect tyre is a very difficult challenge, however the four tyres we had here today covered the range of conditions we experienced admirably and we thank our technicians in Tokyo for their fine efforts to develop such good tyres.”

This entry was posted on Monday, August 30th, 2010 at 6:02 am and is filed under Bridgestone, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.