Bridgestone Motorsport heads to the penultimate round of the 2003 FIA Formula One World Championship with a cautious spring in its step this week after the boost of confidence it received at Monza ten days ago. Careful not to get complacent the tyre manufacturer has continued its rigorous testing efforts and hopes that the US round at Indianapolis will enable its teams to consolidate their championship hopes.

Hiroshi Yasukawa, Director of Motorsport, said: “After the success of our teams at Monza, everyone at Bridgestone Motorsport has remained highly motivated. It was just what we needed and we intend to continue this success. The final two races of the season will be very exciting and Indianapolis a real challenge but our technical staff have been working extremely hard with our teams so I expect them to be challenging at the top again. Bridgestone, along with its main Firestone brand, also has a strong reputation in the US so we can expect to receive a warm welcome at Indianapolis which we are looking forward to.”

2003 Tyres for Indianapolis
Approximately 1,400 tyres have been sent from Bridgestone's UK base and F1 production factory in Tokyo, Japan to the Indianapolis circuit. In line with the 2003 regulations which allow teams to choose their own two specifications, Bridgestone has eight specifications of dry weather tyre in addition to one wet weather specification and one extreme weather specification.

Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager of Bridgestone Motorsport said: “We had a good few days of testing last week working on final choices for the Indianapolis and Suzuka GPs. B.A.R didn't have an easy time because they were limited to running with one car after Jenson Button's accident but Jacques Villeneuve worked hard and did an excellent job. Ferrari and Sauber also had constructive tests with Ferrari getting some long runs in. Indianapolis is quite a challenge for a tyre manufacturer. It is a conflicting combination of long, fast straights where cars reach speeds in the region of 320-330km/h and a much slower infield section. These two characteristics mean we need to provide our teams with tyres from the softer end of our compound range in order to provide competitive high grip levels in the infield section but we also need those compounds to have good heat durability on the high speed sections. This is no easy task to achieve but we will have several new specifications in the US all of which we expect to be competitive on this circuit.”