Bridgestone opt to take super-softs to Singapore

Later this season Singapore will make its first appearance on the Formula One calendar, and Bridgestone announced on Friday that they plan to take their super-soft and soft tyre compounds to the city for September's race.

The company also confirmed that, as in 2007, they have selected to use their medium and soft compounds at October’s Japanese Grand Prix and their hard and medium rubber at the Chinese event. For the season finale in Brazil, however, there will be a change, with medium and soft tyres replacing the soft and super-softs used last year.

"After 11 races this season we can now confirm our tyre allocations for the final four races of the year,” explained Hirohide Hamashima, Bridgestone Motorsport’s director of motorsport tyre development. “This will be the first time for Formula One in Singapore and we will bring the soft and super soft compounds for this interesting new street course.

“High grip will be required at this track which is the primary reason for our choice. In Japan and China we will use the same compounds as we used in 2007. For Brazil we have moved a step harder in our allocation range. This race can be very hot, as we saw last year, and our data from the thrilling final race of last season showed us that this change would be beneficial for the teams.”

Tyre compounds for the 2008 season:
Australia - soft, medium
Malaysia - medium, hard
Bahrain - soft, medium
Spain - medium, hard
Turkey - medium, hard
Monaco - super-soft, soft
Canada - super-soft, soft
France - soft, medium
Britain - medium, hard
Germany - medium, hard
Hungary - super-soft, soft
Europe - super-soft, soft
Belgium - medium, hard
Italy - medium, hard
Singapore - super-soft, soft
Japan - soft, medium
China - medium, hard
Brazil - soft, medium