Bridgestone: no changes likely for 2008

The Japanese tyre manufacturer introduced a range of four compounds this year to cover the varied demands thrown at it by all the tracks on the calendar.

And with drivers forced to use two types of tyres in races, there had been hopes that the different compounds would mix races up dramatically thanks to varied strategy calls.

It has not happened to the extent that some people wished for, but even so Bridgestone is convinced that its approach was right and should remain the same in 2008.

Bridgestone's head of track engineering operations Kees van der Grint said: "For us everything worked quite well. I think having two specs (each race) was a good idea, one for safety reasons, and also that you see some difference in strategy and qualifying.

"Of course I understand that people want to see five seconds per lap difference between the two tyres, but that is just technically impossible.

"I think also for TV viewers the white line (to indicate the soft tyre at each race) is interesting. So for us to stay that way yes, we would be very happy to keep exactly the same regulations."

Van der Grint said Bridgestone's decision to use just four different compounds over the course of the year was spot on.

"One of the good decisions we made was not to develop or change the construction," he said. "The construction has a big influence on the car balance, on the weight distribution and many things, so if you change the construction you modify the balance and characteristics of a design.

"Changing it also means you are clearly helping or favouring the big teams and hurting the small teams, because they cannot cope. So to stick with one construction was a very good decision for the sport in general."

Van der Grint said that the only likely modifications to next year's tyres would be in evolving the compounds a little to improve durability - and said that extra focus would be spent on making the soft tyre used in Canada better.

"I can see that we will change all the compounds a little bit, because you want to develop a little bit so you have a little bit more grip," he said.

"There is always room to improve. With the medium compound and the soft compound, if we can improve the heat resistance it will be a better product and it doesn't necessary mean it will be quicker."

Speaking about the Canada tyre, van der Grint said:"For me, I think the softest of the two was not perfect in Montreal but to me the position is that I don't think we should go harder.

"We just have to understand why the tyre did not work as we wanted it. That could have been the track surface itself or maybe the super soft compound was not ideal, but I still think that is something we have to analyse."