Bridgestone willing to vary markings

As autosport.com revealed, the FIA introduced a last-minute regulation change last week that requires Bridgestone to 'visibly' distinguish between their two types of tyres at each grand prix.

With little time between the regulation change being approved and the start of the new season in Australia this weekend, a three-centimetre diameter white dot will be painted on the sidewall of the soft tyre as a first attempt to differentiate it.

However, with fears already surfacing that the dot will not be big enough to make it possible to visibly distinguish it from the medium tyre when the cars are at speed on the track, Bridgestone has said it is open to making changes if the system does not work.

Kees van der Grint, Bridgestone's head of track engineering operations, said: "I think we will see what happens over the weekend.

"Maybe there will be some comments from the media, who will say that they can't see it or that it is excellent. I think it should be open for discussion for the future.

"This is a rule that the FIA came up with very late, so we have just followed what the FIA wanted. I don't know if it will satisfy, but maybe there is the need for some discussion for the future."

Van der Grint made it clear, however, that it was already too late to introduce such elaborate ideas as coloured sidewalls - which are used in Champ Car.

"You can come up with some very beautiful solutions, but we have produced the tyres already so we cannot change them any more. We cannot make a red tyre or anything - we need to work with what we have and in the given time."