After three fly-away races, Formula One makes its European debut for 2008 when Bridgestone`s hard and medium compound Bridgestone Potenza Formula One tyres get put through their paces at Barcelona`s gruelling Circuit de Catalunya on April 27th for the Gran Premio de Espana Telefonica.
Barcelona is well known to teams with much of the pre-season testing […]

Hirohide Hamashima - Director of Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development: “Barcelona is a circuit that Bridgestone and all the teams and drivers know well. Even though we are very familiar with it, we still have to be vigilant as it is by no means an easy circuit.
“In terms of tyre allocation we bring our hardest […]

This year marks the fifth anniversary of Bridgestone’s e-reporter competition for aspiring motorsport journalists. To celebrate, the Formula One and GP2 tyre supplier will be taking the nine 2008 finalists to this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix and the preceding official GP2 Series launch event.
The growing popularity of the e-reporter competition, for students aged 18-30, has […]

Bridgestone has played down the concerns of a number of Formula One drivers over the ban on tyre warmers in 2009, suggesting that the performance of its new slick tyres when cold had been `much-improved`.
Michael Schumacher joined the likes of GPDA president Pedro de la Rosa, Nico Rosberg and David Coulthard in questioning the regulation […]

Bridgestone used this week’s Barcelona test to complete their second major evaluation of the 2009-specification slick tyres which could be adopted next season in place of the current grooved rubber. It follows their first test in Jerez last December.
Bridgestone brought three slick compounds to the Circuit de Catalunya, each team receiving a total of nine […]

Bridgestone Motorsport, the Official Tyre Supplier to the FIA Formula One World Championship, has completed its second major 2009 specification slick tyre test as well as a preparatory test for next week`s Gran Premio de Espana Telefonica at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona, Spain.
Ten teams were present over the four days of testing from […]

Felipe Massa has won the third round of the FIA Formula One World Championship after using a soft-soft-medium compound Bridgestone Potenza tyre strategy in the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix at Sakhir.
Massa was joined on the podium by team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who finished 3.3 seconds behind, using the same tyre strategy, on a dominant […]

Tetsuro Kobayashi - Technical Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport: “This was a very satisfying race for Bridgestone as both the medium and soft compounds performed very well here. This confirms that we were correct to change the compound allocation from last year when we brought the hard and medium.
“Heat durability, wear and consistency were good for […]

Tetsuro Kobayashi - Technical Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport: “Congratulations to Robert Kubica and BMW Sauber for their first pole position. This was the third driver in as many races to achieve pole which shows how close it is this season, with all drivers on Bridgestone Potenza tyres.
“Both compounds performed well today. The soft compound was […]

Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber) set his first ever Formula One pole position by using Bridgestone`s soft compound Potenza to go fastest at the Bahrain International Circuit for the third round of the FIA Formula One World Championship, the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix.
Kubica`s time of 1min 33.096secs enabled Kubica and his BMW Sauber team […]

Felipe Massa (Ferrari) set the marker on the opening day of running for the Gulf Air Grand Prix by using Bridgestone`s soft compound Potenza tyre to set the day`s fastest lap time at the 5.41 km Bahrain International Circuit for the third round of the 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship.
Massa set a time of […]

Tetsuro Kobayashi - Technical Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport: “Today was very interesting in terms of tyre performance. Both compounds performed better than anticipated, especially with the sandy circuit we see on the first day of running here in Bahrain.
“All the teams made good use of the medium compound and found good consistency with this tyre. […]

Bridgestone could consider using different coloured rubber to distinguish its slick tyre compounds next year, it has emerged.Currently, F1`s official tyre supplier paints a white line inside a groove to visually distinguish the `option` compound from the `prime`, as required by the rules.But with slick tyres expected to return to the grid next year, the […]

The removal of traction control has certainly been a talking point at the start of the 2008 Formula One season. The Bahrain International Circuit, location of the third round of the championship, is a track where traction is important because the circuit layout has a number of tight corners leading on to short straights.
In […]

After the heat of the Malaysian Grand Prix, Bridgestone Motorsport`s medium and soft compound Potenza Formula One tyres face another hot test with the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix at the Bahrain International Circuit on April 6th.
The 5.41 km Hermann Tilke designed circuit features a diverse 15 turns. It is one of the toughest […]

Hirohide Hamashima - Director of Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development: “Bahrain is a challenging circuit and this will also be an interesting event as only two teams have tested here before the start of the season.
“After reviewing our data from last year we have changed the tyre allocation for this Grand Prix. The data showed […]

Bridgestone is hoping that a new range of tyre compounds and higher track temperatures will alleviate fears about warm-up issues when it tests slicks again at Barcelona next month.
The Japanese tyre manufacturer is looking at bringing slicks back to Formula One for the start of next season, and conducted a preliminary test of the rubber […]

Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) has won the second round of the FIA Formula One World Championship after using a hard-hard-medium compound Bridgestone Potenza tyre strategy in the Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.
Raikkonen was joined on the podium by BMW Sauber driver Robert Kubica, who registered his best ever Formula One finish with second place, […]

Hirohide Hamashima - Director of Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development: “This was another hot race for us and another race where our tyre performance was very good. Today was very interesting in terms of tyre wear, especially with the front tyres.
“For cars with better balance the tyre appearance was favourable, however, for those cars without such […]

Felipe Massa (Ferrari) will start the second round of the 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship from pole position after using Bridgestone`s medium compound Potenza tyre to go fastest in qualifying at Sepang for the Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix.
Massa set a time of 1min 35.748secs and was almost half a second faster than his […]