Universal approval for new tyre marking

Following criticism of the white painted circle used in Australia, which proved impossible to discern once the car was moving, Bridgestone adopted a revised approach for Sepang following tests last week.

The Japanese tyre manufacturer opted to paint the second inner groove of their softer compound rubber with a white line - something that has proved very effective in differentiating between the tyre types.

And with the white stripes proving a success, Bridgestone will now maintain that system for the rest of the campaign unless there is a surprise wave of criticism following the race.

Bridgestone's head of trackside engineering Kees van der Grint said: "I think it has been good.

"On Friday when I was watching on the television it was excellent, from the on-board camera it is brilliant when you see the front tyre, and when I was in the pitlane it was very easy to follow who was putting what tyre on. I would say it is a big success.

"If somebody has a suggestion for another improvement it is always welcome, but at the moment it is very good so I don't see why and how we should improve.

"Of course everything is welcome, but I think in the races the spectators in the grandstands, the viewers on television and even the people seeing pictures in the magazine, everyone will enjoy this system."

Williams technical director Sam Michael, who first suggested the white stripe idea to autosport.com in Australia, believes the solution is completely satisfactory.

"It was pretty poor what we had in Melbourne, honestly," he told autosport.com. "It was hard for even us.

"Obviously when we chatted in Australia I came up with that idea and when I left Melbourne everyone was still moaning about.

"So I rang (Bridgestone's Hirohide) Hamashima up and said, 'look, paint a set on Alex's car on the first day (of the Sepang test) and take some photos.' And that was it.

"It is a pretty good solution, it is great for us in the pitlane. You can see it from 200 metres away and it doesn't upset the look of the car now. I think this issue is behind us now. It's all done."

Despite the widespread support for the idea, van der Grint revealed that not everyone has been behind the introduction of the white stripe.

"We had one comment, but I think that was a bit silly," he said. "Well, one driver was not so happy. 21 were very happy, and one driver didn't understand why it was necessary.

"I don't know why - maybe it made him dizzy! That was why his comments were so strange. I can say 99.9 percent were very positive, everybody. So I am happy."

It takes more than ten hours for Bridgestone to paint the white stripes on to the tyres. The paint is applied by a special white paint marker pen while the tyre is spinning on a balancing unit.

The second inner groove was chosen because it is the one that is least likely to fill up with rubber, which would hide the white stripe, during a race.