Bridgestone give details on test tyre

Bridgestone were pleased with the performance of their asymmetric tyres at the Gran Premi Cinzano de Catalunya and on Monday they provided all riders testing with a new specification tyre for Phillip Island which is another track where the emphasis is place on one side of the tyre.

With 15 MotoGP riders staying on in Barcelona for the Monday test it gave the Japanese company a chance to work on a tyre which they have in mind for the visit to Australia in October and the highly technical island track.

“Phillip Island is a very demanding circuit, especially on the left side of the tyres, and we are thinking about modifying the specifications just for that race, for stability on the left side,” stated Bridgestone’s Tohru Ubukata. “That’s why we have brought new specification here (for the Barcelona test), to try and find the direction for our development. We have provided this new experimental tyre for all the riders and most of them tried this new specification.”

“The track and ambient temperatures between here and Phillip Island are very different but the tyre temperature itself is very similar, so we believe this was a good circuit to test for the Australia specification,” he added.

Ubukata, Bridgestone’s Motorcycle Race Tyre Development Manager, was also pleased with the performance of the special tyres his firm provided at round six for the GP weekend itself, stating, “As we expected our asymmetric tyre worked quite well here in Barcelona and actually this is not the first time for us to use this type of specification. It is the first time since we have had the one-make rule, but in the past we usually used this kind of specification. At some circuits we have to use asymmetrics, and we will also provide them at Sachsenring and Indianapolis, for example. Asymmetric layouts need asymmetric tyres.”