Bridgestone Friday press release - 4th March 08:04am GMT

Bridgestone’s new Potenza Formula One tyres made their 2005 debut today on day one of the Australian Grand Prix. New tyre regulations mean each driver is permitted just four sets of tyres over each race weekend. On Friday, each driver will run two sets of differing specification and that evening, they will choose which specification to run for the remainder of the weekend. They are then expected to use just one set for both the Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning qualifying sessions as well as the entire race. With this in mind, Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro and the Jordan Grand Prix team got to work today testing their new “longer life” tyres. Although little running was completed on the dusty track in this morning’s session and reigning Champion Michael Schumacher completed just three installation laps, by the afternoon, both Bridgestone teams were getting some productive running in. Unfortunately for Christijan Albers and Patrick Friesacher, neither Minardi driver ran in the practice sessions.

Hisao Suganuma, Bridgestone Motorsport Technical Manager:
“The track was very dusty this morning so lap times were not that good. Although some teams didn’t run much, Jordan did some good runs for us and I think that data will be helpful to them. By the afternoon session Ferrari was also running a full programme and they were able to run both specifications, giving us the data we need. Tyres this year have to run for both the qualifying sessions and the entire race so we shall analyse the data this evening and consider very carefully with our teams which specification is appropriate for them. It is important to have a safe, durable tyre. Overall, a satisfactory first day.”

The Teams
Ross Brawn, Technical Director of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro:
“First day of running, getting used to the new format and it looks like everyone was running fairly similar programmes. We didn’t do much in the morning but got in a reasonable programme in the afternoon. We did more laps on one tyre [specification] than the other but we’ve got enough information to make a judgement. Ideally we’d be doing 20-lap runs to make a judgement on the tyres but that’s not possible now with the new engine rules. We’ve had to economise a little on the engine mileage but we’ve done enough to make a judgement that we’ll be happy with. The car is handling quite well and we don’t have any major problems. So far we’re quite pleased with the work we’ve done and the position we’re in.”