Hamashima talks tyre technology

Statisticians had a field day at the French Grand Prix. Michael Schumacher's dominant victory was his record-breaking eighth win at Magny Cours and it also marked his 150th Formula 1 podium. But Michael wasn't interested in records; his win in France meant only one thing: he'd closed the gap on Fernando Alonso in the World Championship to 17 points. If he can continue his winning streak at Hockenheim next week, F1 fans around the world are promised a thrilling climax to the season.

As much as Bridgestone are looking ahead to the remaining seven races of the year, the building blocks for their championship challenge were laid in the first half of the season.

"Technically speaking, we are very satisfied with the progress that we have made so far this year,” says Bridgestone's Director of Tyre Development, Hirohide Hamashima.

"After two years of development work, we introduced a new construction of tyre last winter and it has proved to be successful. Williams were the first of our teams to discover its potential, then Toyota and then finally Ferrari, MF1 and Super Aguri."

Bridgestone's technical progress this year has been helped by an increase in the number of teams using the company's rubber.

"Having Williams and Toyota with us is a great help," says Hamashima. "All of our teams share data after each test, which assists our technicians a lot. I'd say our rate of development is five or six times faster than it was last year, when Ferrari were the only top team using our tyres."

Despite all the technical progress, one source of frustration for Hamashima is that Bridgestone have only Schumacher's four victories to show for their efforts.

"The technical and sporting results haven't been engaged enough," he says. "Early in the season we struggled to convince our teams that the new construction was the right direction. In Australia Ferrari chose the old-style tyre, but now they can see that it works well on all circuits and we are getting good results."

Looking ahead to the remaining races, only one strategy will suffice.

"We have to be even more aggressive with our development," says Hamashima. "Not only that, we need to make even more accurate predictions to do with compound range."

Bridgestone will also soon have to prepare for its role as sole tyre supplier in 2007. With all the teams wanting to begin testing as soon as possible over the winter, Bridgestone cannot wait until after the season to begin its preparations for next year.

"At the moment," says Hamashima, "We're concentrating on this season. Then, from August we'll begin to turn our attention to next year, working out how best we can service the teams and what tyres we're going to use. But, don't worry: these plans will not effect our development for this year."