Bridgestone: New Silverstone even tougher on tyres 05 May 2010
Bridgestone have confirmed that Silverstone’s new track layout will provide an even sterner test of their tyres this year, as they revealed the dry compound specifications for a further three rounds of the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship.
“The Silverstone circuit is historically the most severe on the calendar and now the new layout makes it even more severe,” said Hirohide Hamashima, Bridgestone’s head of motorsport tyre development. “The new straight means a higher average speed, and there is hard braking and fierce acceleration over a lap.
“As always, we will be very vigilant to watch tyre temperature and wear. We expect we will see graining, even with the hard compound, but we believe that the soft and the hard compounds should allow exciting racing.”
Compounds were also announced for the Montreal and Valencia races, both of which will see teams compete on super soft and medium rubber. As usual, the softer of the two tyres will be distinguished by a green band, showing Bridgestone’s support of the FIA’s Make Cars Green campaign.
“The Canadian and European Grands Prix take place on street courses where it is important to have good grip due to the slippery nature of the track surfaces,” added Hamashima. “As these tracks are not used regularly for racing, even the allocations we bring will seem too hard when used on the Friday.
"By race day the circuit improvement and rubber laid will mean that the high grip of the super soft compound paired with the greater durability of the medium compound should provide a good combination.”
Tyre compounds for the 2010 season:
Bahrain Grand Prix (Sakhir) - super soft, medium
Australian Grand Prix (Melbourne) - soft, hard
Malaysian Grand Prix (Sepang) - soft, hard
Chinese Grand Prix (Shanghai) - soft, hard
Spanish Grand Prix (Barcelona) - soft, hard
Monaco Grand Prix (Monte Carlo) - super soft, medium
Turkish Grand Prix (Istanbul) - soft, hard
Canadian Grand Prix (Montreal) - super soft, medium
European Grand Prix (Valencia) - super soft, medium
British Grand Prix (Silverstone) - soft, hard
