New Bridgestones 'significantly better'

The Japanese tyre manufacturer evaluated new compounds during testing at Paul Ricard and Valencia last week and, following encouraging results, they gave the green light for the tyres to be shipped to Melbourne from their Tokyo base.

The new generation of tyres are believed to overcome the issues that Bridgestone's new constructions have suffered in cooler conditions, especially when it comes to heating the tyres up for single-lap pace.

And with this weekend's Australian Grand Prix almost certain to be colder than the season-opening Bahrain and Malaysian Grands Prix, the new tyres could prove crucial in the fight for victory.

Gascoyne claimed the new tyres were a major improvement on what Bridgestone's teams had run so far this season.

"Bridgestone has made a significant step forward in getting compounds to work at lower temperatures," Gascoyne told autosport.com. "It is a very, very big difference."

Gascoyne claims that the heat-generating problems that his team suffered from in Bahrain were experienced to a lesser degree by other teams during testing back in Europe after Malaysia - but the new tyre should help resolve the issues for all teams.

"In Bahrain, we felt we had the problem more than the others, but Williams last week also had problems worse than they had before," continued Gascoyne.

"I think Bridgestone went away from Bahrain thinking Toyota were alone in having a tyre warm-up problems, but I think after last week's test they now know that everyone has them to a certain degree.

"The new compounds Bridgestone has brought in are designed to be a clear step forward for this particular problem and they are a very, very big step forward.

"If the conditions are cloudy and overcast with low track temperatures, then it could be very important."