Bridgestone has revealed that it will take its two softest tyre compounds to Valencia for the European Grand Prix on the city's new street circuit in August.
The announcement came as part of the tyre supplier's latest compound allocations, which cover the forthcoming events in Germany, Hungary, Valencia, Belgium and Italy, and which see a few changes from last season.
The German Grand Prix sees the
F1 circus return to Hockenheim and, with no 2007 data to go on after the European Grand Prix went to the Nurburgring amid Germany's reversion to a single round, Bridgestone has opted to take its hard and medium compounds. Hungary will again see the soft and super soft compounds taken to Budapest, and the same compounds will also journey to Valencia for the first of the season's two new races. Spa and Monza, meanwhile, will both a change of heart from the Japanese company, with the hard and medium compounds used in place of the medium and soft utilised in 2007.
“The data we have gained from the first seven races of the season have enabled us to make our allocation choices for the following five events," director of motorsport tyre development Hirohide Hamashima explained.
"Of these races, Valencia and Hockenheim are notable. We did not race at Hockenheim last year, so this will be the first time we have raced there with the current family of tyres. Valencia, of course, is a new street track and we do not have any previous data, and there is none from other race series. It will be interesting for everyone concerned to learn the track characteristics there.
"For Spa and Monza, we have moved the allocation a position harder and will bring the hard and medium compounds, instead of the medium and soft used in 2007. We have made this change after analysing the data from last year, as these tracks were harsher than we had predicted.
"We will make an announcement about the tyre allocations for the final four races in the season later in the year.”
