Bridgestone have said that the fans deserve a good race at
Indianapolis this year - a subtle dig at their rivals, Michelin, who messed up big time in 2005 and reduced the event to a six-car farce.
Speaking prior to the tenth round on the schedule, Bridgestone's director of motorsport, Hiroshi Yasukawa added they have been working very hard to ensure their tyres come up to stretch.
"Coming to the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway is always a special event for Bridgestone," he stated. "Through our Firestone brand we have a wonderful connection with this circuit and its racing heritage. The fans this year deserve to see a thrilling and highly competitive grand prix and I know our technical staff have been working closely with our teams to make sure we give them a great race."
Bridgestone technical manager, Hisao Suganuma meanwhile added that
Indianapolis is 'quite unique' with its combination of very fast oval and slow infield sections.
"From a tyre point of view this means we need a tyre with performance characteristics to make the best of both sections of the track," he continued. "The slow infield requires tyres with good grip which means we are looking at compounds from the softer end of the scale. However, the oval is extremely fast so the tyres also need to have very good stability and braking performance."
As for the banked section that caused so much trouble in 2005, Suganuma explained that a number of factors have to be considered: "Turn 13 in particular submits the tyres to very high loads and high lateral forces," he noted. "The drivers are on full throttle through this section so the tyres must be strong enough to cope with both these directional forces.
"Normally tyres are loaded more on the inboard side of the car because of the negative camber. At
Indianapolis however, the banking means the outboard side is also loaded so tyre manufacturers have to be vigilant here. Bridgestone has taken all these factors into consideration when deciding with our teams which tyre specifications to bring. The specs have all been very carefully chosen for this race and we will be looking for a good result this weekend."