Bridgestone sure to stay strong all year

That is the view of Hiroshi Yamada, manager of Bridgestone's motorcycle sport department, who reckons rivals Michelin will do their best to bounce back following a disappointing Turkish Grand Prix.

"I don't think they're happy at Michelin so they'll want to make up for it," Yamada told Gazzetta dello Sport. "As for the title, we've raced on three tracks with different characteristics and we've always done well.

"So, at this point, we think we'll be able to be competitive until the end. When we started in 2002 our programme was to win the title within five years, so now we are one year late..."

The Bridgestone-shod Ducatis of Casey Stoner and Loris Capirossi finished first and third in Istanbul last Sunday, with Honda's Toni Elias, also using tyres from the Japanese maker, in second place.

Bridgestone-tyred bikes occupied the top six positions.

Bridgestone lost out to Michelin last season, scoring four wins to the French supplier's 13.

Yamada admitted the company is pleased with their progress this year.

"We've improved a lot," added Yamada. "There are tracks where we suffered last year: one of them was Istanbul, the others Donington and Portugal. The problem is the slippery asphalt, even though the surface in these three cases isn't identical.

"We tested a lot, some 10% more than usual, and worked most of all towards bridging the gap in these conditions. I'd say we've managed to do it quite well. We saw that both in practice and in the race, when the temperature was higher, because we normally do better when it's a bit cooler.

"Since November 2006 a single development department (with Bridgestone's F1 people) was created, with more people. One hundred people? No, it's a lot less.

"There isn't so much of the F1 know-how to transfer, it's just a bit of technology and most of all the simulation models. We've also increased the number of track engineers: from six to eight, with six Japanese and two Germans."