Q & A with Bridgestone's Hisao Suganuma

And with senior figures readily admitting that tyres will probably play the decisive factor in the outcome of the fight ahead, that meant more focus than usual was placed on the work of Michelin and Bridgestone.

But both tyre manufacturers were caught on the hop a little after they arrived at the Autodromo to find that the track had been resurfaced between the second Lesmo and just after the Ascari chicane.

It meant a slight reshuffling of programmes and, although Felipe Massa in the Ferrari was quickest overall, it meant that maybe we have not seen the full potential of either of the tyre manufacturers just yet.

Autosport.com caught up with Bridgestone's technical manager Hisao Suganuma to find out how the week had gone - and just how confident he felt after his five teams worked their way through 2000 tyres and 20 different specifications.

Q. How has the Monza test been?

Hisao Suganuma: "My feeling is that it was quite competitive, lap time wise. Felipe (Massa) was top of the timesheets and we have also seen quite consistent performances with Michael (Schumacher) on the long runs. So from that point of view we are quite happy.

Q. Were you aware of the resurfacing at the track?

HS: Prior to coming here, no. We did not know.

Q. Did it affect your programme much? Did you have suitable compounds?

HS: Not really, we had some compounds

Q. How come there was no communication from the circuit or the teams?

HS: Simply we did not get informed.

Q. What difference did the resurfaced part of the track make?

HS: The biggest change was that when we were here, running in June, we saw quite a lot of graining , particularly on day one of testing. We provided the teams with the same compounds at the initial running this time and we did not see the graining, so the tyre performed consistently.

That probably means we can go a bit softer. The drivers have said the new part has more grip than the old part, so we did not see much problem. We did not suffer with the new tarmac.

Q. So is the track better now then?

HS: Well, if it is better or not we will have to see on the long runs. It's a long race here and one stop is the classic strategy, so the tyres will have a tough time at very high speed. They will experience a lot of heat. We will have to be very careful about the condition of the tyres and we need to make sure that on the long runs our tyres are okay.

Q. Have you developed tyres specifically for Monza?

HS: We always take into account the aero change to the car, which is this case means very little wing and a low downforce setting. That makes the car slide more. In the June test, when the priority was for Canada and Indianapolis, the car had more wing than compared to this week - so they were sliding less then. We are more careful on heat durability here, because sliding generates more heat in the tyres and we might have blister problems. But at the moment we do not have that problem.

Q. So are the tyres specifically made for Monza?

HS: They are not really special for here. Our tyres can be used for other circuits as well. We have to work on the construction too, because of the severity at high speed. So far, we do not see any problems.

Of course our development is continuing so when we get some new ideas on the compounds and constructions we will use them next week, and also for the last flyaway races. We have not decided yet.

Q. What happened to Schumacher's pace, or lack of it, in the second stint during the Turkish Grand Prix?

HS: In terms of Michael's pace, his second stint was a bit slower. I think he carried a bit more fuel than expected and we are still analysing what happened there. Probably, together with the fuel load, the tyres got a bit overheated. They therefore lost performance.

Q. Last year you struggled on some tracks, like Turkey, but it does not appear to be the case this year...

HS: Well, we did a lot of testing in the last winter. As a result, we made a major change in the construction and that gave us a lot of performance. Initially that construction gave us a narrow operating window but ourselves and the teams got familiar with how to use such a construction.

Also we developed an optimum compound to work in conjunction with the new construction, so altogether we have made a performance leap.

Q. Have you already decided the tyres for the final four races?

HS: At the end of the final day we decided for Monza. So far we have seen our tyres are competitive and I really would like to keep this momentum for the coming week.

China has special characteristics because the circuit is very smooth, but the track layout is very tough so we have to make a good compromise in the soft compounds. That will need to be durable, and our development work will concentrate on that area.

For Suzuka, it is a very demanding track, like Barcelona or Silverstone, so we have to make very durable tyres in terms of construction but not suffer in terms of consistency. Then Brazil has a relatively smooth surface, so we can go a bit on the softer side on our range.