Increased safety behind Bridgestone MotoGP tyre development in closed era

With most major motorsport series adopting a sole tyre supplier for some time – a notable exception being the World Rally Championship, which has frequent competition advocates Michelin and Dmack tyre brands available this year – one could be forgiven for assuming that there is little need for continuing development of the product. However, Pirelli is bringing tyres to the forefront of Formula One analysis with a brave initial development process attempting to promote greater competition followed by “evolutions” of compounds – this weekend will see the Italian brand take an altered soft compound, designed to “reduce degradation and improve tyre wear”, to Spain. Last weekend, Bridgestone – MotoGP’s sole tyre supplier – debut a brand new asymmetric rear tyre, comprising soft compound rubber in the right shoulder and extra soft compound rubber in the lesser-used left shoulder, at the French Grand Prix. Hirohide Hamashima, assistant to director, Motorsport Tyre Development Division says continued safety improvements, as well as rider demand continues to drive motorsport tyre development in spite of the lack of competition with another manufacturer.

“We are always competing against ourselves and we have a goal to produce and make available the best tyres we can. Yes, tyre development has slowed down since the era of tyre competition but this new tyre shows that we have not stopped developing tyres for MotoGP. We are always listening to the riders, and whilst it is not always possible to meet all of their demands or modify our tyres immediately, it is important to us to listen carefully, take notice of what they are asking, and do our best to improve our products for their benefit.

“Our intention in new tyre development is to provide an increased margin of safety for the riders in the early stages of each session. I can say that in France our new soft rear slick achieved this target and furthermore lap times on this new tyre were faster than last year which I believe shows very successful development.”

Hamashima said that the alterations to the tyres had been a contributing factor in the tumbling lap times in France: “I can say from the lap times, and from riders’ feedback, that yes our new soft asymmetric rear slicks were another step forward in performance. For the lap times from the very first practice session on Friday morning to be under the lap record is almost unheard of and something we at Bridgestone are very happy about. Of course, the tyres cannot take all the credit because an enormous amount of work has been done by the teams and the Hondas in particular were very fast this weekend, but the tyres play a crucial role in translating machine and rider performance to the track.
 
“The extra soft compound rubber in the left shoulder of the rear tyres provided the riders with better feeling in the early laps, especially given the cold morning conditions in France. In the morning the track temperature was as low as 23 degrees Celsius yet still performance was good enough. By contrast, on Friday afternoon the track was 45 degrees and still riders dipped beneath the lap record on the same soft rears, indicating that not only does this new tyre provide better warm-up and rider feeling but it also has a wider operating temperature range.”

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