Europe: Bridgestone anticiaptes positive result

Bridgestone Preview
By Phil Huff (26/06/2003)
June 26 2003

As Bridgestone Motorsport enters the second half of the F1 season in the wake of yet another resounding victory in Canada for Michael Schumacher, Bridgestone Motorsport has taken stock of the season so far, and is preparing for its next offensive on the GP calendar - Round 9 at the European GP.

With no break before Round 10 at Magny Cours back-to-back rounds has meant stepping up the impetus in testing recently. Bridgestone conducted three days of tyre testing at Silverstone last week with Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, Sauber Petronas and Lucky Strike BAR Honda.

Work concentrated on both tyre compound and construction work for future rounds and Bridgestone's Technical Manager, Hisao Suganuma was pleased with the results. In addition to finalising the choices for the Nurburgring, a number of compounds were also tried for the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours as well as fundamental testing for the British Grand Prix in July.

Hiroshi Yasukawa, Director of Motorsport: "Not only did Michael's win in Canada provide the much needed boost to both his and Ferrari's title campaigns but it also served as a welcome boost to our technical staff. Our tyre performance both in the wet and dry was strong and this is something we intend to maintain and improve upon even further over the remaining rounds of the season. We are now at the half way marker and it is vital that we get our heads down and work hard to capitalise on last weekend's result. We are making some positive steps forward with our development work and hope to see the fruits of that labour in the second half of the season. In the meantime, the Nurburgring will be another tough challenge. We had a good race there last year but we need to make sure our qualifying performance is strong enough to give our teams the flexibility they need for their choice of strategy."

Like the Austrian GP, the European round requires tyres from the softer end of the range. However, the Nurburgring's high altitude in the mountains sets it aside as one circuit where weather patterns can shift dramatically, and grip will be the most important factor on a changing circuit.

Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager: "We had three good days of dry testing at Silverstone last week providing us with some positive results. In addition to the test work we did for the British GP, we confirmed the choices for the Nurburgring and are quite confident about our teams' chances there. Because of the nature of the Nurburgring, which has similar characteristics to those found at the Austrian Spielberg circuit, it was a bit difficult trying specifications from the softer side of the range at Silverstone. But, we did get some indication of which direction to go in. We know from last year that grip is the most important factor at the Nurburgring. The weather can turn quite quickly at the Nurburgring and in addition to the chance of rain, we need to keep a close eye on ambient and track temperatures and the weather forecast. Following our good race result in 2002, however, we are anticipating another positive result."