Bridgestone Tests Ten New Tyre Specs

Tyre manufacturer Bridgestone revealed they have been testing ten new tyre specifications this week, when testing resumed in Spain and Italy prior to the 2003 season.

The Japanese company said today the main aim of this week's and the next fortnight of testing is "to identify the development direction Bridgestone needs to take in order to build on its competitiveness and race-winning performance next year," adding that up to ten new specifications have been tested this past week.

Hisao Suganuma, Bridgestone's Technical Manager, said: "We have done a lot of laboratory testing during the last few months so one of our first tasks is to confirm those results on the track during November and December. This is the starting point towards identifying the route we want to take for 2003. We have done some basic comparisons this week and that has already given us some useful indicators for next year."

The Japanese manufacturer, who dominated the season along with World Champions Ferrari and Michael Schumacher, are currently supplying five of the eleven teams enlisted for the 2003 season.

Bridgestone concentrated its testing efforts this week in three tracks - with Ferrari and BAR in Barcelona, Sauber in Valencia and Ferrari again in Mugello, Italy. Jordan is expected to join testing only in January, and Arrows's future remains unclear for now.

Suganuma, who has been working with Sauber at Valencia this week, said: "Overall, testing this week has gone well, the results have been encouraging and we have gathered some promising data. But this is only the start and we have plans to try many different options during the winter."