Hirohide Hamashima – Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development
What was significant about today’s running?
“Once more we had difficult track conditions with a wet track to start the running. Drivers certainly have to work hard to avoid the barriers and the engineers have to work hard to understand how the tyres are working in these challenging but entertaining conditions. From our perspective, we found the circuit evolution very strange so it is difficult to understand tyre behaviour. Generally with the super soft driver feedback was of more oversteer than normal so this has been an intriguing weekend so far.”
What are the tyre strategy considerations for tomorrow’s race?
“When and if there is any rainfall will be a primary strategy consideration. If there is a wet track, it seems to take a very long time for the surface to dry so those sat in the cockpit will have to drive very accurately and pay strong attention to their work. If it is a dry track for the race, the wear and performance durability of both dry compounds should allow a wide range of strategy options so there is potential for a variety of strategy calls. Wet or dry, those on the pitwall will also have to concentrate very hard indeed tomorrow, but I think there is good potential for an entertaining race, just as we had an enjoyable qualifying session today.”
