Here’s another F1 update for every racing geek out there. The 2008 Formula One World Championship season is on the way and we don’t want to be left behind. I know everyone’s excited, so let’s start kicking our engine mounts and prepare for the newest season of the world-renowned racing event!
To start of, here’s a Q&A with Tetsuro Kobayashi, the Technical Manager of Bridgestone Motorsport, courtesy of MotorSport.com News:
Q: What has Bridgestone learnt from this test?
TK: "Valencia is an interesting circuit with a mixture of low and medium speed corners, as well as a reasonably long straight, which makes it useful for data accumulation. This has been a useful exercise to see how our tyres interact with the latest cars from the teams, and we had no interruptions from poor weather over these three days. As the car regulations are largely the same as the previous season it becomes more critical for the teams and drivers to extract the maximum from the Bridgestone Potenzas and watching the evolution of the new cars for this purpose is fascinating."Q: What is the rest of the test programme before the season starts?
TK: "From Valencia we head to Barcelona with an expected eight teams who will use the hard compound Potenza. Ferrari and Toyota will test in Bahrain with the medium compound between 4-6 and 9-11 February and should see hotter running than we have had in Europe. After that, it is back to Jerez with an expected nine teams and the medium compound on 12-14 February. Six teams are expected to return to Barcelona between19-21 February, with certain teams opting to test at other locations in this period. Finally, between 25-27 February we will have a test in Barcelona with the hard compound where all teams are expected to attend. This is an intense period of activity for us, and unlike many teams our engineers attend both the tests and the races. There are now under 50 days before we see running at Albert Park for the first race of the season, and I am sure we will see plenty of progress from the teams between now and then."