Bahrain Preview Quotes: Bridgestone
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."
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."
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