Testing
- what it's all about
Pre-season testing takes on a 'funnel' effect, with the number of options narrowed down as different things are tried in testing and Bridgestone's engineers get closer to working out the best tyre for the first race.
The work begins with the arrival of a number of early prototype specifications proposed by the design department at Bridgestone's technical centre in Tokyo. These specifications consist of the various components involved in tyre production - compound, construction and shape - with each being tested to find the best in terms of performance. Once the separate components have been identified, they are combined in further specifications and tested. The aim is to make sure everything is in place to maximise performance.
Bridgestone develops 'families' of compounds. The different families are distinguishable because of the different types of ingredients used. Within those families, compounds differ because of the combination of the ingredients; this gives a 'working range' of compounds, ie from the softest through to the hardest compound.
Hisao Suganuma, technical manager, said: "One plus one does not always make two from a tyre point of view. It's about testing and comparing, both on the track and at our indoor facility, until you are sure you have the best combination."
So, what is the ideal number of laps on which to base those decisions? Says Suganuma: "The more laps you can run with each prototype the better, but of course demands on drivers' and cars' time and weather conditions mean you can't always do as many as you would like.
"For the best data you need a full race stint so that you can see how the tyre performs in terms of degradation. In reality, some people choose to do two or three timed laps followed by a long run, others prefer a seven or eight timed lap run."
With so much work to do, this year in particular Bridgestone has had to share the 'job list' sent from technical centre between its teams. "Ideally, you would have all the teams testing the same things at the same time so you can amass a lot of data. But this year there is such a lot of work to do in a short period of time that we have to allocate the work among our teams to make sure we can get through it all," adds Mr Suganuma.
The tyres that will start the season in Melbourne will leave Japan two weeks before the Australian Grand Prix on March 3. Once the season begins, development continues throughout the year. Last year Bridgestone produced 120 specifications with new tyres being introduced for almost every race.
While weeks of work go into identifying the best race tyre during pre-season testing and most of the new specifications throughout the season are variations and improvements on it, it is possible, albeit extremely difficult, to virtually repeat the entire process to create a new race tyre. Suganuma explained: "Replicating all the work that goes into producing the race tyre is an enormous task. However, we must continue improving so our teams have the best performing tyres we can offer them and if it necessary to take such a massive step forward then we must try to do it. That is competition, that is why we are here."
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