Bridgestone Announces Tire Allocations for Bahrain GP

Bridgestone has announced the tire allocations for the Bahrain Grand Prix, scheduled for the upcoming weekend. As in China, the optional compound provided to the F1 teams will be super soft. However, the Japanese tire manufacturer will not bring their hard compound to Sakhir, but replace it with the medium one.

Unlike the past racing weekends, the weather at Sakhir is expected to be quite hot at the time of the race, which means tire wear will certainly become a key issue during the Sunday action. Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tire Development Hirohide Hamashima confirmed the super soft compound will lead to some challenging racing this weekend, given the high track temperatures at Sakhir.

“We have the medium and super soft tyres and we expect the medium tire to be very durable. The super soft should present more of a challenge in terms of durability than the medium, however the data from the Bahrain pre-season tests show that this tire can be managed well on this track if the correct set-up is found,” said Hamashima.

While admitting the Bahrain Grand Prix benefits from a more technical layout – theoretically suit the KERS-powered cars – Hamashima also stressed the importance of good traction on the Sakhir track. Poor traction will more likely lead to higher levels of tire wear due to the extra heat from braking, and this will in turn affect lap times.

“Bahrain is a technically interesting circuit. Maximizing traction out of the corners is the key to a good lap time, but if a car has less than ideal traction, additional unwanted heat can be created, and this will make matters more difficult for competitors,” added Hamashima.