Bridgestone Intermediate F1 Tires Cause Problems in Testing

The first day of testing on the Jerez de la Frontera circuit on Wednesday was heavily affected by rain, as only the first hour of the meeting saw the cars running on a dry track. However, the poor weather conditions in Spain was not all bad news for the testing field, as the teams were able to test the new intermediate tires from Bridgestone.

And the action on Wednesday proved one important thing, namely that the intermediate tires from Bridgestone are not capable of doing the work throughout the 2010 season of Formula One. According to an early report from Finland's Turun Sanomat, tire wear with the new tires was beginning to become a problem after only a few laps on the circuit.

As you all know, the Japanese tire manufacturer was forced to develop new tires for the upcoming season of Formula One, as the forces applied (via heavier fuel loads) to the tires through 2010 will be much bigger than the ones in 2009. If no issues have been discovered with the slick tires during the Valencia test, the intermediate compound seems quite fragile for the time being.

According to the aforementioned source, lap times drop by approximately 2 and a half seconds “in the early stages” after using these tires. Kamui Kobayashi described his experience at the wheel of his Sauber C29 in the rain like this: “At the end of ten laps it felt like I was driving on slicks in the rain.”

The mystery was elucidated immediately by Bridgestone, as a statement from the company reckoned the intermediate and wet tires for the 2010 season were not heavily modified as compared to their predecessors in 2009.

“The wet and intermediate tires (for 2010) have no significant changes (compared with 2009) apart from the (narrower) width of the front intermediate tyre, which will now be the same as the new dry front tire,” said Bridgestone.