Bridgestone announces the tires selected up to the Turkish GP

The exclusive tire supplier for F1 has just announced the tire choices for the five races following Melbourne.

Just like for the Australian GP, “Bridge” will bring hard and soft tires to Malaysia, China, Spain, and Turkey, while for Monaco, the choice has been medium, offered for the first time, and super soft tires.

Hirohide Hamashima, the head of development at Bridgestone, explains these choices:

Shanghai and Barcelona are two fairly abrasive circuits, and Istanbul, as we’ve seen in the past, is even more so. That’s why we will bring a first choice of tires as hard as possible, ensuring that our second choice offers a real difference in behavior. For Monaco, there will also be a notable gap between our two choices compared to previous years since we used to rely exclusively on a super soft structure. The decision to offer a harder medium-type tire has been made, due to the new regulations, as fuel loads are much higher, and the stints are longer. We believe that this choice of medium for the “Prime” and super soft for the “Option” will make an interesting difference for the race and for this event.

In accordance with the regulations, at each Grand Prix, only two types of tire compounds can be offered to the teams.

It is necessary to distinguish the “Prime” tires [medium and hard] from the “Option” tires [soft and super soft]. The latter can be recognized by the green stripe visible on the outer side of the tires.

For the Japanese manufacturer, choosing tires in advance is not an easy task, as confirmed by Hamashima: Deciding on tire choices for a Grand Prix is always difficult, especially since we don’t have concrete information on weather conditions. We have to wait to be on-site during the three days of the race to be certain. Our tires performed well in Bahrain, however, we must remain vigilant because safety is our major concern.

The compounds brought by Bridgestone to Monaco: