Bridgestone goes soft for Monaco

Formula One looks set for an interesting battle on the streets of Monte Carlo this weekend with drivers using Bridgestone’s super soft tyres for the first time in a race. The first four races had seen teams using a combination of two from either the soft, medium or hard compounds produced by Bridgestone for the 2007 season in its role as sole tyre supplier.

But the super soft compound has been introduced as drivers head for the most prestigious race on the championship calendar having enjoyed a successful test at the Paul Ricard circuit last week.

The track in the South of France was an ideal venue to debut the Bridgestone Potenza tyres ahead of the 54th running of the Monaco race where precision is crucial and the slightest mistake cruelly punished.

With teams using a maximum downforce set-up, the performance of the super soft and soft tyres is a vital element in the car’s performance on the 3.3 km tight and twisty street course where overtaking is very difficult.

Kees van de Grint, Bridgestone’s Head of Track Engineering Operations, said: “The Monaco race will be very interesting. We conducted the first two days of the Paul Ricard test on the soft and super soft compounds on the shorter configuration circuit.

“The soft compound Bridgestone Potenza was spot on for the Paul Ricard venue while the super soft had higher grip but more graining.

“Paul Ricard is not Monaco but from the data we think that the super soft will perform better there. Of course, we won't know this for sure until we're actually in Monte Carlo.

"You need as much grip as possible and teams will run their cars with a maximum downforce set-up,” he said, adding that rear traction was crucial with acceleration out of so many corners. “But you have to be careful as understeer is not desirable with so much Armco about.”

Because the circuit puts such high demands on the tyres, van de Grint and his team have been working flat out to provide the best possible solution. “We have worked on minimising the wear rate as we want to allow the teams flexibility with their strategies."

“In Monte Carlo it will be interesting to see how it performs. But the compounds have behaved more or less as we estimated.

Ultimately it will be a play off between lap times and tyre endurance levels, admitted van de Grint. “The hard and medium are about one step aside and that transfers into three-to-four tenths lap time difference, whereas the medium and soft are a little bit farther apart so the lap time difference is a little bit bigger.

“With the hard tyre there is less wear and a little bit more consistency but clearly less grip so all but a few drivers always prefer the softer of the two tyres available."

Van de Grint has been delighted at the way the performance of the tyres in race conditions has met expectations from the months of testing in the laboratory and on track testing.

“The races have gone as expected but with some surprises because afterwards everybody is clever! But in all fairness now, it looks like I can confirm that we did our homework very well.”