Formula One News

Formula One News » No extremes as Bridgestone reveals final options Posted on 07/09/2010

Bridgestone has announced the compound allocations for the final four rounds of the 2010 F1 world championship, coincidentally its last appearances in the top flight – for the time being at least.

Despite considering providing a bigger difference between tyres, a gap of one step between compounds features for each of the races from Japan on 10 October to the finale in Abu Dhabi on 14 November. The first-ever Korean Grand Prix will feature the hard and soft compound Potenza tyres, the same choice being taken to Japan for the return to Suzuka, while both Brazil and Abu Dhabi will see the supersoft and medium compounds pressed into action.

“The most interesting question for these final allocations is which tyres will we bring to Korea?” Bridgestone’s head of motorsport tyre development Hirohide Hamashima admitted, “As always, for a new race we work closely with the FIA, the circuit and the teams to reach our decision but, in addition to all this information, we always have safety in mind, so our allocation for the first race in Korea will naturally be on the conservative side.

“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.

“Due to the nature of the tracks, however, there were no further opportunities for a hard–supersoft allocation, although we did evaluate this after the lessons learnt at the Hockenheim. 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 supersoft and medium.”