26/07/2005
NEWS STORY
The Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend is the thirteenth event in this year's 19 race FIA Formula One World Championship calendar and the final of four grands prix in July alone. It also comes at a crucial time in the championship with Bridgestone and its teams wanting to take as many points as possible. Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello currently lie third and fifth respectively in the overall drivers' standings and after taking a resounding 1-2 finish at the Hungaroring in 2004, the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro pair will want to push hard in Hungary. Podium results have not been so forthcoming this year but the championship is by no means over so a good result in Hungary would be an important boost.
Hiroshi Yasukawa, Director of Motorsport: "The Hungarian Grand Prix is always a challenging event and it is particularly significant as it comes at an important time in the championship. With this in mind we are keen to keep pushing our development for the benefit of our three teams. We have recently seen improved qualifying and opening lap times and our technical staff are working hard to build on this. It is important to provide our teams with a more complete tyre package from start to finish as the Ferrari drivers are still championship front runners and we have been seeing increasingly encouraging performances from Minardi and Jordan."
Tyres for Hungary
Bridgestone Motorsport's Formula One Potenza tyres are produced in Tokyo, Japan before being sent by air to the UK and then on by truck to Hungary. The tyres for Hungary will consist of two dry, grooved specifications for each team and the same wet weather and extreme wet weather specification for all Bridgestone teams.
Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager: "The Hungaroring is the second slowest circuit on the F1 calendar with its many slow corners and undulating nature. The weather can be very hot, resulting in track temperatures of between 40 and 50 degrees Celcius and although the track surface is relatively smooth, we do require high grip for the slow corners which means our tyres will come from our medium to soft compound range. Tyre wear, however, can be high because of the stop and go characteristics of the track. There is a lot of hard braking followed by the need for good traction and this means Hungary can be tough on tyres. Last year, we put a lot of effort into Hungary which resulted in an excellent performance and this year we are just as determined for our teams to do well."