Ferrari Used 2004 Compound in Brazil

"It has been necessary to develop competitive but more durable tyres for the new 2005 regulations," a Bridgestone spokeswoman told Hungarian website A5.hu. "Bridgestone develops and chooses its tyres based on these requirements of competitiveness and safety/durability.

"While researching our tyres, however, we have occasionally found that some elements of our 2004 developments have continued to remain suitable for 2005. For the Brazilian Grand Prix, Bridgestone and Ferrari together selected a tyre which it thought the most appropriate for the Interlagos circuit.

"On this occasion, the tyre used by Ferrari did have some elements of our 2004 tyre in it. However, it also had some 2005 developments in it. Therefore, to be accurate, we view this specification as being a 2005 specification."

Ferrari were on better form in Brazil than during previous race weekends, with Michael Schumacher finishing in fourth place, beating the Michelin-shod Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella, and Rubens Barrichello taking the chequered flag in sixth.

Although technical director Ross Brawn admitted recently that the aerodynamic deficiencies of the F2005 have played a part in Ferrari's failure to defend either World Championship titles, the team's poor form has primarily been blamed on rival Michelin producing a better tyre than Bridgestone.

F1total.com has quoted team boss Jean Todt as saying Ferrari used 2004-spec tyres in Interlagos, but a team spokesman clarified this, stating: "Mr Todt said that we used 2004 tyres with regard to the compounds.

"Ferrari and Bridgestone are still pushing very hard to develop tyres which can make the package competitive as it was for the previous years."

The other two Bridgestone teams, Jordan and Minardi have been much closer to Ferrari on some occasions this year than in previous seasons. Tiago Monteiro, driving for the Silverstone-based squad, was just 0.4 seconds slower than Schumacher during qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix, despite carrying almost the same amount of fuel.

This has led to speculations that Jordan and Minardi have been using 2004-style tyres this season, which eventually proved to be more efficient than Bridgestone's 2005 designs, raced by Ferrari - but the company spokeswoman has denied this.

"Jordan and Minardi have not been using 2004 spec Bridgestone tyres all year," she said.

The Bridgestone camp will expand next season, when Williams and, most likely Toyota will join them, increasing the testing mileage for the Japanese tyremaker, which has completed considerably less kilometres in 2005 with its three teams than French rival Michelin.