Bridgestone Awarded ‘Bolster’ for F1 Technical Achievements

At this year’s Autosport Awards, held in London on December 5, Bridgestone became the recipient of a John Bolster Award in recognition of the company’s technical achievements in Formula One. The accolade, named after the original technical editor of Autosport magazine, was presented by Formula One World Championship winning team principal Christian Horner to Bridgestone’s director of Motorsport, Hiroshi Yasukawa.

Yasukawa, who first joined Bridgestone’s motorsport division in 1976, has spearheaded the Formula One programme over the past 14 years. After receiving the John Bolster, he stated “I am greatly honoured to receive this award on behalf of Bridgestone Corporation. When I first joined Bridgestone in 1972 it was my greatest desire to see Bridgestone become a technological leader through the field of motorsport and for us to become an internationally respected and well known brand around the globe.

“On behalf of Bridgestone I would like to thank the motor racing community for recognising our passion for technical excellence and our desire to ensure that we provided tyres which were safe, as well as capable of performing at the pinnacle of motor racing,” Yasukawa added. “We would also like to thank the many individuals, teams and companies who have supported our motor racing activities. Without them, we could not have achieved our goals.” 

During its 14 years of Formula One participation, Bridgestone supplied a total of 700,000 tyres to 242 F1 Grands Prix. The tyre maker says it has enjoyed the intensity of both the tyre competition eras (1997-1998 and 2001-2006) as well as the responsibility and honour of having sole supplier (1999-2000 and 2007) and official tyre supplier (2008-2010) status.