Bridgestone Announces F1 Tyre Compound for Final 2008 Races

Bridgestone has announced the compound allocation in the Potenza tyres to be used in the final five rounds of this year’s Formula One series. For the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, the hard and medium compounds will be used, the first time these tyres have been approved at this track. In Hungary, the soft and super soft compounds will be used, the same allocation as last season. The European Grand Prix at Valencia – the first Grand Prix at this new street course, will utilise the soft and super soft compounds. In Spa and in Monza the hard and medium compounds will be used, a change from last season when the medium and soft compounds were brought to both of these tracks.

“The data we have gained from the first seven races of the season have enabled us to make our allocation choices for the following five events,” commented Hirohide Hamashima, Bridgestone Motorsport director of motorsport tyre development. “Of these races, Valencia and Hockenheim are notable. We did not race at Hockenheim last year, so this will be the first time we have raced there with the current family of tyres. Valencia, of course, is a new street track and we do not have any previous data, and there is none from other race series. It will be interesting for everyone concerned to learn the track characteristics here. For Spa and Monza we have moved the allocation a position harder and will bring the hard and medium compounds, instead of the medium and soft used in 2007. We have made this change after analysing the data from last year, as these tracks were harsher than we had predicted. We will make an announcement about the tyre allocations for the final four races in the season later in the year.”

Tyre compounds for the 2008 season:

ING Australian Grand Prix (Melbourne): Soft, Medium

Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix (Sepang): Medium, Hard

Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix (Sakhir): Soft, Medium

Gran Premio de España Telefónica (Barcelona): Medium, Hard

Petrol Ofisi Turkish Grand Prix (Istanbul): Medium, Hard

Grand Prix de Monaco (Monte Carlo): Super Soft, Soft

Grand Prix du Canada (Montreal): Super Soft, Soft

Grand Prix de France (Magny Cours): Soft, Medium

Santander British Grand Prix (Silverstone): Medium, Hard

Grosser Preis Santander Von Deutschland (Hockenheim): Medium, Hard

ING Magyar Nagyar (Budapest): Super Soft, Soft

Grand Prix of Europe (Valencia): Super Soft, Soft

ING Belgian Grand Prix (Spa-Francorchamps): Medium, Hard

Gran Premio Santander D’Italia (Monza): Medium, Hard