Bridgestone announces tyre allocations

The Japanese manufacturer says this year's tyres will feature minor changes compared to last season's rubber.

The allocations for the first nine races are the same as last year except for the Bahrain Grand Prix, which will now use the medium and soft compounds, as opposed to the hard and medium compounds in 2007.

The super soft compound, which will be used at the Monaco and Canadian Grands Prix, is modified from the one used in 2007. The other three compounds remain the same.

"Tyre allocation choice for the first half of the season has been made easier by the continuity of our tyres from last year," Hirohide Hamashima, Director of Motorsport Tyre Development, said.

"We have made a minor evolutionary change to the construction of the dry tyres for safety and we have modified the super soft compound, but apart from that the tyres are the same.

"However, we should see faster lap times as teams and drivers now have a year's experience with these tyres and the cars are being developed all the time. For Bahrain, having looked at the data we accumulated last year, and data from the recent test there, we are confident about using softer tyres.

"In the second half of the season we will have more of a challenge with tyre allocation as we visit two new street courses at Valencia and Singapore. These will be announced at a later date."

Tyre compounds for the 2008 season:

Grand Prix                Super Soft     Soft     Medium     Hard
Australia                                 X          X
Malaysia                                             X         X
Bahrain                                   X          X
Spain                                                X         X
Turkey                                               X         X
Monaco                        X           X
Canada                        X           X
France                                    X          X
Britain                                              X         X