Monaco Preview Quotes: Bridgestone

Hiroshi Yasukawa, Director of Motorsport: "The Spanish Grand Prix was a special one for Bridgestone as Michael Schumacher claimed his fifth consecutive win of the season. Spain also gave a strong indication of how all our teams can use Bridgestone's advanced tyre technology to maximum advantage and I expect to see this continue throughout the year.

"Monaco this week presents everyone with an altogether different challenge. It is an unforgiving but extremely rewarding circuit on which to drive and I look forward to seeing the Bridgestone drivers compete at such a prestigious race. From Bridgestone's point of view, it is another technical challenge to embrace.

"The unusual schedule which sees us starting a day earlier means that track conditions from Thursday to Sunday can vary considerably but following extensive preparations over recent months I believe we will be better prepared than ever for the Monaco Grand Prix."

Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager: "We shall be taking five specifications of dry weather Bridgestone Potenza Formula One tyres to Monaco this week. The selection was finalised last week at a number of venues involving three of our four teams at various European circuits. It has been encouraging to see similar results coming from these different tests, which is very beneficial for having a clear development direction.

"Monaco is also the first of the double-headers so we have been working on our Nurburgring tyre choices too. Looking more specifically at Monaco, however, we have worked hard to improve our first lap performance as qualifying is of particular importance on a street circuit with limited overtaking opportunities.

"Very soft compounds are also necessary for grip and one lap performance but this can increase the likelihood of graining. We need to make sure we do not compromise performance following on from that first lap. However, we have been encouraged with our test results so I am looking forward to seeing our tyre performance in Monaco."