Australia preview quotes: Bridgestone

Hiroshi Yasukawa, director of Bridgestone Motorsport: It is always a pleasure to visit Australia, which is a very important market for Bridgestone. The people of Melbourne always give us a great welcome and the Australian Grand Prix gains substantial attention all around the world

Mar 25, 2010, 3:25 AM

Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone director of motorsport tyre development: As we saw last season, Albert Park can present many challenges. This is the first race of the season held on a non-permanent circuit. We expect to see a lot of track improvement over the course of the weekend, which makes finding a good set-up difficult.

The track evolution is also an important factor when deciding which tyre strategy to use. We have moved our allocations a step harder for this season, which should mean tyre management is not as challenging as in 2009. Melbourne is very severe for graining and even bringing this harder allocation, competitors have to take care of tyre set-up.

We think the performance difference between prime and option will be bigger than it was in Bahrain. Also, you can never be certain of the Melbourne weather, so a lot of time will be spent looking at the skies.