It's a balancing act. Obviously, Bridgestone's development direction is led by their teams; the direction we may want Bridgestone to go in needs to be the way they want to go too. Naturally, the majority [of teams] drives development, and we need to latch onto the back of that and make sure we are building a car that optimises that development direction, not go in another direction where we will not get the best out of the tyre.

Are you satisfied to be one of a number of teams that Bridgestone supplies?
The main thing is that it's important to have a good relationship with your tyre company so that you get the most out of their development direction. Obviously, we are not one of the biggest teams in Formula 1 and may not drive development as hard as others, but we are quite happy to sit on the back of it, at least until we are bigger and stronger and can direct development ourselves. We offer our suggestions to Bridgestone from testing, and the comments from our drivers when they say they like a stiffer tyre or softer compound; Bridgestone has the luxury of getting that from ten different drivers. We are happy as long as we have a relationship that means we get whatever tyre information we require to allow us to optimise our car around the tyre. Continuity and the working relationship is everything really.

Tyres have an impact on weight distribution, suspension and aerodynamics in areas like tyre shape and cambering - how does this influence car design?
Put simply, tyres are what connect your car to the road so all the forces you put into the car, from an aerodynamic point of view in load, weight distribution or lateral forces, have to be handled by the tyre. You are trying to make sure the tyres can withstand the aero balance and weight distribution balance that you put through them. For example, if you had a huge front tyre and a very small rear tyre you would be able to put a lot of load on the front and shift the weight forward and the tyre would react to that. In Formula 1, however, we have a big rear tyre and a slightly smaller front tyre so the rear takes a bit more load than the front. Obviously, the size of tyre dictates how much grip you can get so it's another balancing act. The shape of the tyre affects the aerodynamics of the car, it affects the flow and it's very important to understand it. Bridgestone's direction has always been towards a more aerodynamic tyre but we must remember that no matter how much load we have, the tyre is the connection to the ground regardless of whether at high or low speed, whereas the aero is really only there at high speed.

Last year's EJ11 did not get the best out of the rear tyres, why was that?
Our car was very hard on tyres on longer runs, probably harder than anyone else's car. The important thing is to get the load distribution right. We did a lot of work testing at the beginning of this year with the 2001 car and I think we've improved that situation reasonably well through car set-ups. However, winter testing is quite deceiving because track conditions are a lot cooler - you never really know until you get to the heat of the middle of the season when tyres become a very important issue - but we've done a lot of work and understand it more.

How much do different tracks and the way tyres work there influence car design?
Every circuit is different so we try to build the car with enough variability to get the best out of it at every track and to be able optimise the car around the tyres. Certain tracks have features that are more important to think about than others. Monaco, for instance, is all about traction and avoiding understeer because the road's not wide enough, whereas Barcelona has 180 degree corners so mid-corner speed and balance are very important. Bridgestone is changing the tyres, we're changing the car set-up, the tracks are different - every race is a combination of factors and the idea is to get the best out of it.

Do tyres sometimes get blamed when a particular problem may actually be with the car?
If you build a road car you select your tyre supplier and work with them to get a tyre that works well on that car, it's a one-on-one relationship. There isn't that opportunity in Formula 1. The most important thing is that we take the heat for the performance. If another team is quick on Bridgestones, then we can't blame Bridgestone can we? There is no place to hide in Formula 1 and you get a good eye opener every two weeks. There is no point in hiding behind the tyres, or blaming your driver or your engine - it's a team of people and the most important thing is working together to solve any problems.

What is your impression of the prototype Bridgestones you have tested so far this year?
From the testing we did in Barcelona and Valencia in January, we were happy that the new tyres were in a positive direction both in durability and in driver confidence. The lap time was better too so all in all it looks like development is going in the right direction. ..

Tyre regulations 2002 >>