After the excitement of round one in Melbourne, Australia, where Ferrari’s Rubens Barrichello stormed to a fantastic second place from eleventh on the grid, the Formula One circus moves on this week to hot and humid Sepang. Located on the outskirts of the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, Sepang is dubbed the hottest race on the calendar, testing the limits of drivers and machinery alike. Bridgestone shod driver and reigning World Champion Michael Schumacher won in Malaysia last year and Bridgestone’s engineers are keen to take on the challenge once again.

Hiroshi Yasukawa, Director of Motorsport: "We have had a good start to our 2005 campaign considering that the weather affected the race in Australia, and now move on to one of the hottest races of the year in Malaysia. Evaluating our performance in the first race, our technical personnel have obviously done a good job over the winter period and I expect we will be able to demonstrate our full potential in Sepang. We have confidence in our tyres’ performance and durability and hope to give the people of Malaysia a good show. Kuala Lumpur is an important hub in Asia and we are looking forward to seeing people from all over the region when they come to watch the race."

Tyres for Malaysia

Bridgestone Motorsport is sending three dry weather specifications of Potenza Formula One tyre to the 5.543km Sepang circuit in Malaysia from its Tokyo factory. One wet weather and one extreme wet weather specification will also be available to Bridgestone’s teams. The tyres have been specifically tailored to stand the extreme temperatures encountered in Malaysia – last year track temperatures reached 41 degrees Celsius. Tyre compounds, however, will be from the medium range to provide the competitive combination of grip and wear performance on this smooth but tough track.

Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager: "Our development work continued straight after the race in Melbourne with a testing programme in Jerez, Spain this week. Although the majority of our winter testing takes place in temperatures cooler than we expect in Malaysia, we have a lot of experience and data from our previous visits to Sepang, including our victory with Ferrari last year. We make predictions on the compound characteristics required for the race based on the temperatures anticipated during the course of the weekend. Last year we demonstrated just how competitive our tyres are in very hot track and ambient conditions. These hot temperatures, combined with a smooth track, make Sepang one of the toughest tracks for tyre wear. In order to develop good grip we have to use as soft a tyre as possible, but this is countered this year with the tyre having to last for qualifying and the race.

"That means we will opt for a slightly harder compound than in previous visits to Malaysia. We picked up some good data and feedback from the first race and we are putting that to good use in our preparations for Sepang. I am confident that we have a durable tyre which will perform well for our partner teams in this hot and humid race."