Formula 1

Bahrain GP: Bridgestone preview

Bridgestone eager for Bahrain challenge After the challenges of the opening two rounds of the FIA Formula One World Championship, Bridgestone Motorsport is eager to get to Bahrain with its Potenza Formula One tyres specifically tailored to the ...

Edited: Mar 31, 2005, 4:52 AM

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Bridgestone eager for Bahrain challenge

After the challenges of the opening two rounds of the FIA Formula One World Championship, Bridgestone Motorsport is eager to get to Bahrain with its Potenza Formula One tyres specifically tailored to the 5.417km Sakhir circuit.

After a weather-affected first round in Australia and a disappointing performance in Malaysia, Bridgestone is keen to see its teams do well in Bahrain this weekend.

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro will be racing its new F2005 cars for the first time at the third round of the season and Bridgestone's engineers are looking forward to seeing how well the car/tyre package performs.

Hiroshi Yasukawa, Director of Motorsport:

"We have had an interesting start to the 2005 season and following the race in Malaysia I know our engineers have been working extremely hard behind the scenes to set us back on track."

"This is only Formula One's second visit to the Middle Eastern circuit in Bahrain and no doubt it will be a tough challenge for us all but we are looking forward to embracing it and must remember that the Bridgestone equipped Ferraris came first and second last year."

"Off track, Bahrain has a great deal to offer Formula One and for Bridgestone, it is an important market so we are hoping to give our customers and dealers from the region a good show this coming weekend."

Tyres for Bahrain

Bridgestone Motorsport has been busy producing several specifications of Potenza Formula One tyre made especially to suit the characteristics of the 5.417km Sakhir circuit in Bahrain. One wet weather and one extreme wet weather specification have also been sent from Bridgestone's Tokyo factory for its teams.

Although a relatively smooth surface, tyre compounds will be from the medium to hard range to provide the competitive combination of grip and wear performance on this tough track.

Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager:

"Bahrain will be an extremely interesting race weekend for Bridgestone. We have raced there just the once in 2004 and will be relying on last year's data as well as the teams' latest simulation figures."

"The track itself at Bahrain is a combination of tight corners in the first sectors followed by high speed directional changes later on. We therefore need good stability from the cars and tyres."

"Bahrain also poses a unique challenge in terms of its climatic conditions. There may well be varying levels of sand on the track and although track temperatures last year reached into the fifties earlier on in the weekend, we experienced rain on race day bringing temperatures back into the thirties."

"However, we have been testing hard with Ferrari over the past week with both the F2005 at Mugello and the F2004M in Fiorano and we are hopeful of being competitive this weekend."

"Ferrari's decision to race the F2005 was a bold one and as a result we have been able to accelerate our development programme, which will be of benefit to both Ferrari and the Jordan Grand Prix and Minardi F1 teams."

"In the meantime, we are looking forward to seeing our latest specifications working in combination with the new Ferrari car. However, this is only its debut race and we will undoubtedly be extracting more and more potential from the new package as it runs over the rest of the season. It is an exciting time for us all."

-bridgestone-

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