Bridgestone still working on new wet tyre

F1's official tyre supplier produced the single wet type after a request from the teams last year, and pressed ahead with a test of it at Jerez in Spain recently even though the F1 outfits are now believed to want to stick to the current option of two specifications of wet tyres.

That first test for the new rubber was not too promising though, with Williams' Kazuki Nakajima complaining of poor grip - and comparing driving with the tyre to being on an ice-skating rink.

But despite the teams' attitude and the results from that first test, Bridgestone's director of motorsport tyre development Hirohide Hamashima says that the Japanese company will keep working for as long as it takes to get the tyre right.

"The initial feedback (from the test) is that there was not so good grip," he told autosport.com about the initial feelings from the test. "We will have to rethink the position of the compound.

"Now we are analysing the test data so I think we can keep the stiffness, but we have to find some material that gives better grip in wet conditions."

When asked if Bridgestone would carry on evaluating the single wet tyre, he said: "Yes. We will keep pushing, even if it takes two years - no problem. If we don't do it like that, then in that case we cannot develop the wet tyre.

"If we keep continuing the development of the wet tyre like that, then we can find out new technology. With the current situation we cannot test anything, but at the moment the FIA will allow us to test a single type of wet tyre so we will keep doing it."

Hamashima has also said that Bridgestone is close to finalising how it will mark its slick tyres next year - with a high possibility it will put a while line around the two shoulders of the tyres instead of a pattern on the sidewall.

"We put some lines on the shoulders of the tyres in a recent test, although the purple (colour, tried out) was not so good. I think white is better.

"The shoulder line may be more visible than the design on the sidewall. Maybe we will decide (a) shoulder white on the outside and the inside of the tyre."