Bridgestone to rethink wet tyres for Japan

With Michael Schumacher having struggled to get his car inside the top 10, as Michelin's wet rubber proved better in the damp conditions, Bridgestone have admitted that their performance was simply not good enough.

The competitiveness of Bridgestone's rain tyres will be judged by what looks likely to be a wet Chinese Grand Prix this afternoon, but already they are looking into ways they can react to stop rivals Michelin helping Renault seize the title advantage.

"We will try to rethink what we can do for next week's Suzuka race," said technical manager Hisao Suganuma. "But I am not sure exactly what we can do.

"Nothing is decided yet. We are thinking to do something, but I don't know if we can do something major or small. All I can say is that we will try."

Although it is understood that Bridgestone had previously made their wet tyre choice for Suzuka, sources close to the company claim that they can change their mind as late as today if they want to bring different tyres.

That late call for Suzuka is only possible because Bridgestone's tyres are manufactured in Japan.

The chief problem Bridgestone suffered in qualifying, compared to Michelin, was that their wet tyre appeared to be less versatile than the Michelin's, which was better suited to the varying track conditions.

The issue is different to Hungary, where in the race Bridgestone's tyres suffered because the compound choice was wrong for the conditions.

"Our wet tyre performance is not good enough," explained Suganuma. "The Bridgestone-shod car is too slow, but compared to the Hungary situation we could improve some parts.

"In Hungary the drivers complained about the warm-up and level of grip, but today the warm-up wasn't too bad, and the driver could feel a level of reasonable grip. But somehow the laptime didn't come."

Despite the feelings about the wet tyre, Suganuma said he believed Bridgestone still had the edge on a near dry track, and in very wet conditions that call for the extreme weather tyre.

"We are a little bit behind on the wet tyre but we believe we are better on the dry tyre," he said. "In free practice you could see Bridgestone cars starting to use dry tyres earlier than the rivals car, so my feeling is that Bridgestone cars can start to use the dry tyres earlier than our rivals.

"I would say we are better in heavy wet conditions, but I need to prove my word when we have such conditions."