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Bridgestone will bring its two
stickiest tyres to the Hungarian Grand Prix on July 24-26 which takes place
on the tight and twisty 4.38km Hungaroring, one of the lowest grip circuits
on the calendar.
 The
soft and super soft Bridgestone's will be used in Hungary. This is the same
combination as used in Monaco, and means that the general convention of
leaving a rubber hardness gap between the two tyres Bridgestone brings to a
race is not employed. The reason for this is the slippery surface of the
Hungaroring circuit which does not receive much use during the course of the
year, except for during the Grand Prix weekend. The Hungaroring is a
noteworthy venue for Bridgestone as it was very nearly the venue of the
first Formula One race win on Bridgestone tyres, when Damon Hill came within
a lap of winning the 1997 race for Arrows.
Hiroshi Yasukawa - Director of Bridgestone Motorsport, said:
"Hungary is an important market for Bridgestone and it is also the home of
our Tatabanya plant, which was officially opened in 2008. This plant uses
our new fully-automated production system which is called BIRD (Bridgestone
Innovative & Rational Development). This is the most automated tyre
production system in the world, and shows that Bridgestone uses advanced
technology and processes not only for our Formula One involvement."
Q&A with Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre
Development
What are the challenges of the Hungaroring?
"The Hungaroring is an interesting circuit, especially as it is not used
much during the year. This means the circuit grip levels experienced on
Friday are likely to be very different from those experienced in the race.
For deciding set-up and tyre strategy, this makes things difficult, and
competitors will have to work hard. Tyre management, particularly with
graining, is very important, and qualifying position is crucial as
overtaking is difficult. Also, we are ever mindful of the weather as it can
get very hot there, although we have seen rain in the past, notably when
Jenson Button scored his first F1 race victory in 2006."
Why has the tyre allocation gap not occurred for this race?
"We are bringing consecutive tyres from our range to Hungary because of the
slippery surface and the circuit layout. This is the slowest speed permanent
race circuit that we visit during the course of the season, and the surface
itself is not aggressive enough to help generate heat in the tyres. The
super soft and the soft Bridgestone's are both from our low temperature
working range of tyres. This makes it easier for the teams and drivers to
generate heat and get the best performance from them." |
