Bridgestone Pleased with First Testing Results

Japanese tyre makers Bridgestone expressed satisfaction at the progress and results of the first off-season testing session, held this week at Barcelona, Spain.

Bridgestone, who will next year supply only four teams at most, were running an extensive tyre test programme with three cars from Ferrari and one from Sauber. The Ferrari cars were also fitted with up to 24 extra sensors - which allows Bridgestone engineers to collect accurate data on tyre performance.

Most of the testing this week was done in dry conditions, however a wet track at yesterday's session also allowed Bridgestone to run some wet-weather tyres testing.

"We had a large tyre test programme to get through this week with Ferrari and Sauber and thanks to their hard work, we managed to achieve most of it," commented Bridgestone Motorsport's Technical Manager Hisao Suganuma.

"This is only the first test of the winter period and I am encouraged by the amount and quality of the information we have come away with. There have been some interesting results this week relating to both development compounds and constructions and we are looking forward to utilising this data so we can move forward to the next stage of development."

Bridgestone teams are scheduled to continue testing next week at the Jerez track, and Suganuma commented: "in addition to confirming this week's results, there are of course more development specifications to try out for the first time in Jerez.

"We had approximately 20 specifications and in the region of 1,200 tyres to try here in Barcelona and with Tokyo sending them over to us thick and fast we can expect the same again next week! Overall, it's been a good week and we've enjoyed being trackside again."