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Bridgestone Switch to Consecutive Tire Compounds for 2009

Japanese tire manufacturer Bridgestone has finally given in to the pressure of both teams and drivers regarding their policy of gap in compound collocation for the ongoing F1 season. Until now, Bridgestone have brought two different tire compounds to each grand prix, but never consecutive (E.g super soft/medium or soft/hard).

The measure was initially taken in order to “boost the show in Formula One”, as every driver was forced to use both compounds through the duration of one race. However, this caused a huge gap in performance for the cars when using the secondary type of tire, which led to immense criticism from plenty of drivers.

Less than two weeks before the upcoming German Grand Prix, Bridgestone decided to scrap this policy from their 2009 programme. The news was confirmed by director of tire development Hirohide Hamashima, who argued the decision was made after a complete review of the 2009 data (from the first 8 races of the season).

We have made the change to the tire allocation concept based on the data we have collected from races so far this year combined with our knowledge of the tracks we visit for these (next) races,” said Hamashima, as reported by the GMM news agency.

In addition, Hamashima argued that the secondary compound, if the tire manufacturer were to continue with the non-consecutive collocation, would have caused several grip-related problems on the upcoming 5 tracks (Hungary, Valencia, Spa and Monza) due to the circuits' characteristics.
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