Bridgestone Motorsport heads across the Atlantic this week for the next set of back-to-back races: rounds eight and nine of the FIA Formula One World Championship; in the respective cities of Montreal and Indianapolis. Following Rubens Barrichello’s third place podium at the European GP recently, Bridgestone and its teams are hoping to build on the result with a competitive performance in Canada. Michael Schumacher has won the event for the past three years and after recent Ferrari tests in Italy and the UK, is looking for his fourth consecutive win.

Hiroshi Yasukawa, Director of Motorsport: "It is always a pleasure to compete in the city of Montreal where the F1 community is made to feel so welcome. What’s more, as we head across the Atlantic to North America, the track on the Ile Notre Dame is sure to produce a challenging but exhilarating weekend of racing. Michael Schumacher has been particularly successful there in recent years and both the Jordan and Minardi teams regard it as one of their stronger tracks so I am looking forward to watching our teams there again this year. Following the previous back-to-back races in Monaco and Germany, our teams and engineers have had a brief opportunity to test at Monza and Silverstone so I am expecting to be able to provide our supporters this weekend with a good show."

Tyres for Montreal

Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager: "The Montreal circuit is always a tough one on tyre heat durability because of the long straights and low number of corners. This means the tyres are running at high speeds and for relatively long periods of time which can result in high tyre temperatures. This is then followed by hard braking areas which also generates a lot of heat in the tyres. On the other hand, because the corners are not so high speed, tyre wear is quite small and that, combined with the relatively smooth track surface, means we can take tyres with compounds from the softer end of the scale. The track has actually been completely resurfaced since last year but we are expecting it to have similar characteristics as in previous years. Weather depending, we could experience a range of temperatures but that is something we’ll be prepared for. We also spent last week testing with both Ferrari and Jordan at Monza and Silverstone preparing for the races ahead and are expecting a competitive couple of weeks in Canada and the U.S."