Bridgestone Will Keep Tire Gap Through 2010 F1 Season

Despite the few critics received by Bridgestone from some drivers during the 2009 Formula One championship – regarding the one-compound gap between tire allocations throughout last year's campaign – the Japanese tire manufacturer announced it has no plans to change their policy for the season to come.

Consequently, Bridgestone will continue to keep the gap between tire compounds during the grand prix weekend throughout 2010, with the sole exceptions of street circuits. Basically, the gap will not apply to circuits whose characteristics are represented by the lack of grip. In those cases, the Japanese tire maker will bring consecutive compound tires, as until 2009.

“Like 2009, Bridgestone intends to take two dry compounds which are a step allocation apart to most races: Hard and Soft or Medium and Super Soft for example. This will not be possible at some races however, such as Monaco, where it is important to have consecutive soft compounds to ensure maximum grip on the street circuit,” said Bridgestone's F1 technical manager Tetsuro Kobayashi.

“The compound allocation will again be determined by Bridgestone, based on our experience of previous years and the data received from the teams,” added the Japanese official.

Kobayashi also played down fears that the new tires will not cope with the higher loads resulting from the refueling ban for 2010, with the latest Valencia tests being a good proof of that. He explained that the “2010 casing should be much more durable in comparison to the 2009 casing,” and that should help the tires resist the increasing downwards forces applied to it in the first half of the race (when the fuel tanks will be full, adding some extra 100 kg of weight to the cars, as compared to last season).