Button Launches Bridgestone Roadshow
British Formula One Drivers Championship leader, Jenson Button opened Bridgestone’s Driving Nation Roadshow in Birmingham on Thursday 30 July.
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First Stop Says Safety Roadshow a “Success”
Product NewsBridgestone-supported dealer network First Stop has over the past few months held a series of roadshow appearances across the UK, helping to educate drivers about the importance of tyre safety. The events involved the First Stop team visiting nationwide locations to raise awareness of the importance of checking tyre pressures and depth. The decision to do so was inspired by Bridgestone’s recent online survey, which showed that over 88 per cent of motorists don’t check their tyre pressures weekly (according to 1,500 female and male UK car drivers, aged 18-55+ years questioned in March 2009).
Speaking about the roadshow Dan Woodward, retail marketing analyst for First Stop said, “This was a great opportunity for us to get out and meet new and existing customers. We were surprised by how many motorists taking advantage of the free tyre checks were driving on tyres which were incorrectly inflated or had dangerous levels of tread depth.”
“There Will Be No Split”: Mosley Claims F1 Agreement Reached
Product NewsMax Mosley, the president of the FIA, has claimed that the disagreement between Formula One’s administrative body and FOTA – an association of teams most notably including Ferrari – is over. Eight of the ten F1 teams had threatened to form a breakaway series in 2010 if rules restricting their budgets had been introduced.
It seems that Mosley has been forced to back down from his argument that F1 teams would have to reduce spending significantly next year; now, he told journalists at a press conference today (24 June, 2009), “There will be one F1 championship but the objective is to get back to the spending levels of the early 90s within two years.”
Bridgestone Safety Campaign Gets Underway in India
Product NewsWith an annual road toll hovering at around 100,000 deaths – one of the highest in the world – Bridgestone’s launch of its global ‘Think Before You Drive’ campaign in India is perhaps timely. The campaign, first launched in 2005 and now operating with the backing of FIA member clubs in more than 60 countries, will hopefully help Indian motorists identify the main causes of serious or fatal crashes – and implement simple safety measures before heading off.
Formula One 2009, Round Eight: Brawn, Button Beaten in Britain
Product NewsSebastian Vettel and Mark Webber ensured that Red Bull Racing scored its first one-two of the Formula One season at a Silverstone Grand Prix somewhat overshadowed by an ongoing spat between the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) and the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA). Rubens Barrichello, championship leader Jenson Button’s Brawn GP teammate took third spot on the podium, while 2009’s leading contender was able to grab only three points at his home race in P6. Drivers’ Championship holder Lewis Hamilton continued a miserable third season following the highs of his first two years in sixteenth.
Meanwhile the row between the eight teams threatening to create an offshoot championship and the FIA continues, following the announcement of a budget cap system to be introduced in 2010. On its website, the FIA argues in a statement dated 16 June 2009 that the sport “cannot sustain” both “technical freedom” and “the freedom to spend without limit”, calling the ability of major car companies to do the latter “insane in the current climate”.
First Stop Network Hosts Charity F1 Event
Product NewsA week before the Formula One roadshow hit Silverstone, Carson Tyre & Autocare – part of the
First Stop network of tyre dealerships, hosted the event at department store Leekes, in Melksham, where they showcased a stunning replica F1 car and simulator to help raise money for charity. Visitors to the Saturday, 13 June event had the chance to have their picture taken by the F1 car and test their driving skills on the simulator – both for a small charity donation. Bridgestone has declared the event “a huge success”, raising £200 for the British Heart Foundation.
All visitors were presented with Bridgestone merchandise and given the chance to enter a prize draw to win an exclusive F1 factory tour of the Williams facility in Grove, Oxfordshire. First Stop representatives and Carson Tyre & Autocare staff, who were on hand during the day, also used the event to give out safety and product advice.
Yokohama HPT to Support RX Racing in Portugal
Product NewsThe UK distributor for Yokohama tyres, Yokohama HPT, will be heading south to Portugal next month, as it supports RX Racing when the buggies form part of the first regional final towards this year’s Race of Champions. With the 2009 Race of Champions moving to the Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing, home of last year’s Olympics, the organisers of the event have responded to demand from numerous countries to join the Nation’s Cup by creating the first regional final. The event, to be held in the Estadio do Dragao in Porto, the home of FC Porto, will see teams from Portugal, Spain, Italy and Monaco fight for a place in the ROC.
The format for the first final will follow a similar one to the ROC, with teams of drivers from every discipline of motorsport competing on a tarmac course laid out in the stadium. Saturday will see Portuguese drivers going head-to-head for a place alongside local Production car World Rally Championship leader Armindo Araujo to form the four-strong team for Sunday’s competition.
Ferrari to Quit F1?
Product NewsFormula One’s off-track happenings continued to rival its race-days in terms of drama as the sport’s longest running and most successful team issued a stunning ultimatum, threatening to end its involvement if proposed budget cap rules are implemented next season.
FIA chief Max Mosley has proposed a system that would allow teams remaining within a £40 million budget cap to operate with fewer technological restrictions than those that chose not to. Ferrari argues that this would create a two-tier championship stating, “The same rules for all teams, stability of regulations, the continuity of… endeavours to methodically and progressively reduce costs, and governance of Formula 1 are priorities for the future. If these indispensable principles are not respected, and if the regulations decided for 2010 will not change, Ferrari does not intend to enter its cars.”
Bridgestone Announces 2009 e-reporter Finalists
Company NewsThe eleven finalists who will hone their journalistic skills in the battle to become this year’s Bridgestone e-reporter have been named. This year’s list features aspiring sports reporters from nine European countries, including two UK candidates. The first e-reporter to be given the chance to demonstrate his talents is Spain’s Ferran Lopez Margall, who will cover the opening GP2 event for the season at the Spanish Grand Prix on May 8 to 10.
Eight finalists are attending a Formula One race weekend to follow the GP2 Series this season, while three others will get the opportunity to witness the two-wheeled action of MotoGP. All finalists will report on the Bridgestone-supported championships for Bridgestone’s bridgestone.eu/e-reporter website and interview riders or drivers to fine-tune their journalistic skills. The first UK e-reporter to go trackside is Stephanie Black, who heads to Silverstone on the weekend of June 19 to 21. The second Blighty based candidate, Kate Goodacre, will report on the GP2 proceedings in Germany between July 10 and 12.
F1 Performance Feeds into HP Tyres from Bridgestone
MotorsportHaving supplied the tyres exclusively to Formula One for the past two seasons, Bridgestone could be said to know a thing or two about racing performance. The technical leap to produce slicks this year shows that the company is no slouch in terms of making changes too. But does the company’s knowledge of track-based technology aid its development of UHP products for road users? Bridgestone certainly believes so, underlining the point by using the same Potenza branding on its road-going products as it does on its F1 rubber: “The technological advances that Bridgestone makes on the racetrack feed directly into its high performance road tyres,” it states.
In its unique role in F1, Bridgestone works with many of the world’s major motor manufacturers in a high performance environment. Technical developments made on the track with such manufacturers as Toyota and Ferrari, Bridgestone explains, are applied to Bridgestone’s high performance passenger car tyres. Andy Dingley, advertising and promotions manager at Bridgestone, comments: “As we supply all of the teams in F1 we have generated large amounts of technical data, as well as learning new methods of working, which is certainly beneficial for our passenger tyre development strategy.”
Formula One Drivers Show Support for ‘Make Cars Green’ Campaign
Product NewsBridgestone Corporation says it will this year, as a global partner of the Fédération International de L’Automobile (FIA), continue its support and promotion of the global ‘Make Cars Green’ campaign. This announcement follows the first event of the 2009 Formula One season, the Australian Grand Prix, at which Bridgestone says the Formula One drivers showed their unanimous support for the campaign.
The Make Cars Green campaign aims to reduce the effect of cars on the environment by informing drivers of how to drive in a more environmentally friendly way. In partnership with automobile associations in countries worldwide, Bridgestone Corporation and the Bridgestone Group are calling on drivers to observe the “10 points for greener motoring”.
Bridgestone E-reporter Navarro to Commentate for 2009 F1 Season
MotorsportBridgestone has announced that Guillaume Navarro, winner of the 2008 Bridgestone e-reporter competition, will serve as a commentator at the be commentating on the FIA Formula One World Championship for RMC Sport radio (Radio Monte Carlo) for the full 2009 season. At the opening round of this year’s Formula One Season, held in Australia between 27-29 March, Navarro will officially be behind the microphone for the first time as part of the commentary team for RMC Sport Radio, France’s leading sport radio station.
Bridgestone Previews the Australian Grand Prix
Product NewsThe 2009 season of Formula One looks set to usher in a new era for the sport, with rule changes aplenty, a newly-formed and perhaps, dare we say, competitive team for perennial underachiever Jensen Button and – most interestingly in this writer’s opinion – the return of slick tyres from Bridgestone’s Potenza brand for the first time in over eleven years. It is the tyres that are at least partially responsible for the radically overhauled cars this year, which are sure to catch the eye. The latest aerodynamic regulations, designed to reduce downforce, mean that the cars look very different from their counterparts of twelve months ago. Round one of the 2009 World Championship gets under way with the ING Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park on 29 March.
Since slick tyres require a new method of marking to designate between compounds, as the previous method of painting one of the grooves with a white line no longer applies, Bridgestone has used the opportunity of launching a new system to show its continued support for the FIA’s Make Cars Green campaign by marking the softer of the two dry compounds available for each race with green sidewall markings. The now renamed “wet” tyre (formerly “extreme” tyre) will also feature a green line in a central groove. As before, two compounds of tyre will be available for every grand prix, with the requirement that both are used in the race. In a change from the previous allocation philosophy employed for the past two seasons, Bridgestone will now bring non-consecutive allocations to most events. For the Australian Grand Prix the medium and super soft tyres have been selected from the range of hard, medium, soft and super soft.
New UHP From Bridgestone
Product NewsBridgestone Americas has introduced the Bridgestone Potenza RE-11, a V- and W-rated UHP line. The tyre, introduced in Japan last year, features Bridgestone’s “Stealth Technology,” an aid in water dispersion.
“The tyre’s unique new sidewall shape and radical new ‘stealth’ block, which was derived from Bridgestone’s Formula One race tires, promotes higher tread stiffness while enhancing water evacuation,” the company said in its description. “An asymmetric cavity shape offers improved handling and ride characteristics. Large outer tread blocks improve cornering performance, and grooves around the tyre’s circumference help channel water from the tyre’s footprint to decrease hydroplaning.”
Bridgestone said the tyre targets such cars as the Honda S2000, Nissan 350Z, the Mini Cooper S and the BMW 3 Series. It will be available in 31 sizes covering 15- to 19-inch wheel diameters, and carries a UTQG of 180 AA. (Tire Review/Akron)
Formula Two Relaunches on Avon Tyres
Product NewsAvon Tyres has been unveiled as the official tyre supplier for the FIA Formula Two Championship, which re-launches in 2009 after a 25-year absence from motorsport. The championship, which will feature 24 identical cars designed by the Williams F1 team, has been created as the ultimate feeder category for Formula One, while still being affordable for aspiring young drivers. Sixteen races will take place at eight circuits across Europe, from Valencia and Barcelona in Spain to Donington Park and Brands Hatch in the UK.
Headed by Jonathan Palmer, whose MotorSport Vision (MSV) company has used Avon as the control tyre supplier of the Formula Palmer Audi championship since it began in 1998, all the F2 cars will be manufactured to identical specification and run entirely by MSV to ensure driver talent shines through.
