Bridgestone ready for aggressive track surface in Valencia
Bridgestone heads to Valencia for the ninth race of the season where Bridgestone’s medium and super soft compound Potenza tyres will take to the streets of Spain’s third largest city. The 5.42km Valencia street course, located in the port area of the city, is a relatively high speed street course and incorporates a bridge in its layout.
Twenty five corners and several sections where speeds are around 300 km/h mean a track where finding a good set-up compromise can be a challenge. The non-permanent nature of the facility means that track surface evolution is likely to be a factor over the weekend.
Hiroshi Yasukawa – Director of Bridgestone Motorsport, says: “The Valencia Street Course is a good addition to the calendar and it is great to see this race establish itself on the calendar. Spain is one of our most important markets so it is very useful for us to visit here twice a year. Bridgestone Spain utilises motorsport well and this helps with our strong brand image. We are hopeful of an exciting race weekend in this wonderful Spanish city.”
Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development, says: “From a riverside street course in Canada we now head to a seaside street course in Europe. In common with the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, the Valencia Street Course has several high speed sections, however it has more corners. The layout and track surface is more aggressive to the tyres than in Montreal so we do not expect the same challenge for teams to get maximum performance from the medium and super soft compounds as in Canada. This year’s European Grand Prix takes place in June, as opposed to the late August date of the first two Grands Prix in Valencia but we don’t believe the date change will present us with radically different weather.”
Source: Bridgestone Motorsport
