Bridgestone Motorsport and its four
teams are aiming to keep up the pressure on its rivals
next weekend at Round Fourteen of the FIA Formula One World Championship
in Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium. After the resounding success of the
Hungarian Grand Prix where
Ferrari’s seventh one-two finish of the season sealed the
Constructors’ title for the Scuderia and Sauber Petronas’
Giancarlo Fisichella took another all important point for the Swiss-based
team, it has been business as usual for Bridgestone’s engineers.
Mindful that there is much work to be done yet, Bridgestone has
approached the next challenge of Spa with every intention of assisting
its teams in fulfilling their potential. Michael Schumacher and
Rubens Barrichello will be “going for gold” as they
battle for the Drivers’ Championship and Fisichella, currently
lying a respectable tenth overall, has every chance of climbing
further up the rankings if he maintains his run of form. There is
still much to play for.
Hiroshi
Yasukawa, Director of Motorsport:
“After the excitement of seeing Ferrari seal the
Constructor’s Championship in Hungary last week, we move on
to Spa-Francorchamps where the Bridgestone equipped drivers will
all be battling for further championship points. This is an important
stage of the season and we are very focussed on serving our teams
to the best of our abilities. The circuit at Spa is a favourite
of many in the motor racing world and it is a pleasure to see it
make a welcome return to the calendar this year. I expect it to
produce a thrilling grand prix.”
2004
Tyres for Belgium
1,400 Bridgestone Potenza Formula One tyres will leave
for the 6.973km Spa-Francorchamps circuit next week. Comprising
of five different specifications of dry Bridgestone tyres, the specifications
were selected at the final Jerez and Monza tests prior to the test
ban.
Hisao
Suganuma, Technical Manager:
“Spa-Francorchamps is another very challenging circuit.
Its high speed nature means that the tyres must have good heat durability
while also providing good stability through the fast corners, such
as Eau Rouge. Like the Nurburgring, this circuit is in a mountainous
region and therefore subject to variable weather conditions and
temperature fluctuations. We have had to take this into consideration
when choosing our dry tyre specifications and wet tyre specification
as they need to perform whatever the weather brings. Our choice
of compounds has been selected from our mid to hard range because
of the abrasive nature of the track surface and the high speeds
endured. Spa will be very interesting for us this year because while
we expect to be competitive as it has traditionally suited Bridgestone’s
tyres, it has been resurfaced in some areas since the grand prix
was last held there in 2002. The “Bus Stop” has also
been modified but we do not expect this to have too much of an influence
on tyre selection. We have not been able to test specifically for
Spa but are confident that following the last tests in Jerez and
Monza prior to the test ban commencing, we made the right choices
in conjunction with our teams.” |
