Bridgestone yet to decide on '09 tyres

Bridgestone's technical manager Tetsuro Kobayashi says the Japanese manufacturer is still some time away from choosing the tyres allocations for the 2009 season.

All Formula One teams ran with slick tyres at the Barcelona circuit this week, in preparation for the return of the groove-less rubber next year.

Kobayashi admitted there is still work to do before having a clear picture of what specifications the company will use in racing in 2009.

"We are still accumulating data and it will be some time before we determine the particular tyre allocations for each Grand Prix," said Kobayashi.

"We will take two specifications of tyre to each race and we have worked to engineer two specifications which have a greater difference in characteristics between the two than we saw in the 2008 season.

"The harder tyre of any given allocation should offer very good consistency, but not enable as good an initial laptime.

"The softer compound should offer a very good initial laptime, but will experience performance drop-off the more it is used. It is hoped that this should provide competitors with many challenges and strategy options to encourage exciting racing. As regards tyre markings, we are still evaluating exactly what we will use."

Kobayashi also acknowledged teams struggled to bring their tyres up to proper temperature during the test.

"We already have a lot of data from previous running with slick tyres, so the test helped build on this and allowed the teams to evaluate and develop their approach to using these tyres," he said.

"The weather here in Barcelona has been quite cold so teams have found it difficult to warm up and maintain the heat in their tyres with the harder compound slick. We have gained a lot of data over the three days and we are still analysing it.

"This is not a completely straight-forward process as there were so many variations of car specification used here over the three days, with current cars, simulated 2009 downforce cars, and cars with early versions of the 2009 aerodynamic packages. Also, there were cars with KERS systems, which are still under development.

"It has been a very interesting three days, particularly as we have had feedback from a five-time World Rally Champion, as well as seeing new drivers, including the very well known motor sport name of Senna out on track."

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