Bridgestone Motorsport had a challenging day at Malaysiaďż˝s Sepang Circuit today, Round Two of the FIA Formula One World Championship, but came away with plenty of important data to assist future tyre development. Encouragingly, Bridgestoneďż˝s tyres had proven themselves safe and durable throughout the weekend despite track temperatures in the roaring fifties. However, after disappointing qualifying sessions and race results from its runners, Bridgestone will be pushing forward with its development programme in the coming weeks. Scuderia Ferrari Marlboroďż˝s Michael Schumacher fared the best of the Bridgestone runners this weekend, driving a determined race from 13th on the grid to pick up two points for a seventh place finish. Teammate Rubens Barrichello unfortunately picked up some rubber which caught in his rear wing and disturbed the balance of this car. He retired in the latter stages of the race after this imbalance caused too much wear on his rear tyres. Meanwhile, three of the four remaining Bridgestone runners from Jordan Grand Prix and Minardi F1 completed the race distance, giving the young rookies yet more important race mileage.

Hisao Suganuma ďż˝ Technical Manager ďż˝ Bridgestone Motorsport ďż˝Obviously we are disappointed that our tyre performance was not up to our usual high standards this weekend but we will leave Malaysia with some positive feedback which can be carried forward into our future tyre development. It is often the case when a good result has not been achieved that we gain a valuable insight into our tyre performance and this was certainly the case this weekend. Admittedly our tyre performance was not enough but we are pleased that we supplied safe tyres in extreme weather conditions. We are now looking ahead to next weekďż˝s test in Mugello where we shall assess the best candidates of tyre specifications for the forthcoming Bahrain Grand Prix. We will react as quickly as possible to turn around the situation.ďż˝

Ross Brawn ďż˝ Technical Director ďż˝ Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro ďż˝A disappointing race outcome as we were optimistic that the track might improve. Unfortunately that didnďż˝t happen. Ferrari and its partners will obviously look at what has to be done in the next few weeks because clearly we werenďż˝t good enough today. But, weďż˝ve been here before and weďż˝ll probably be here again in the future and I have trust and faith in everyone around us that we can

2005 Malaysian Grand Prix - Main Page
2005 Malaysian Grand Prix - Team and Driver Race Reports Page

Latest Formula 1 News from Bridgestone: