Bridgestone today announced the tyre compounds they will be bringing to the Canadian, European and British Grand Prix; rounds eight, nine and ten of the 2010 season.
The official tyre supplier to Formula 1 has informed the teams that, for the street circuits of Montreal and Valencia, they will provide the super soft and medium compounds from their Potenza range, while at Silverstone the soft and hard compounds will be used.
As is usual, the company are leaving a compound step between the two types of tyre allocated for each race to improve the spectacle. The softer compound at each race weekend is indicated by green bands on the tyre side walls.
Hirohide Hamashima, Bridgestone Head of Motorsport Tyre Development explains the reasoning behind the company’s choices: “The Canadian and European Grands Prix take place on street courses where it is important to have good grip due to the slippery nature of the track surfaces. As these tracks are not used regularly for racing, even the allocations we bring will seem too hard when used on the Friday. By race day the circuit improvement and rubber laid will mean that the high grip of the super soft compound paired with the greater durability of the medium compound should provide a good combination.
“The Silverstone circuit is historically the most severe on the calendar and now the new layout makes it even more severe. The new straight means a higher average speed, and there is hard braking and fierce acceleration over a lap. As always, we will be very vigilant to watch tyre temperature and wear. We expect we will see graining, even with the hard compound, but we believe that the soft and the hard compounds should allow exciting racing.”
Bridgestone have already announced the tyres they will be bringing to rounds five, six and seven. For this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, the soft and hard compounds will be used. At the Monaco Grand Prix, which takes place the following weekend, super soft and medium tyres will be on the cars – unsurprising given it is a tight street circuit where grip is at a premium. In Turkey, at the end of June, Bridgestone will be bringing the soft and hard compounds to Istanbul.
