Tyre Talk: Heading Home
By Ian Lockwood October 8 2008
Bridgestone heads home for the sixteenth round of the FIA Formula One World Championship which takes place in Bridgestone’s homeland of Japan at the Fuji Speedway. Although the name Bridgestone may not sound Japanese, the company was founded in 1931 in Japan and the name is a clever translation of the name of its founder.
Bridgestone heads home for the sixteenth round of the FIA Formula One World Championship which takes place in Bridgestone’s homeland of Japan at the Fuji Speedway. Although the name Bridgestone may not sound Japanese, the company was founded in 1931 in Japan and the name is a clever translation of the name of its founder.
Mr Ishibashi. Ishibashi, in Japanese, means ‘stone bridge’ (ishi: stone and bashi: bridge) and the aims for the company were always international, hence the translated modification of the name.
Today Bridgestone is the world’s largest producer of rubber products, so its yearly production of around 60,000 Bridgestone Potenza Formula One tyres is not so substantial when Bridgestone makes 16.9 percent of the world’s production of tyres [based on 2007 data].
Bridgestone’s Formula One tyres are produced in Japan in a special department of a production facility located in Tokyo.
“Our Formula One tyres are produced in a factory that makes passenger vehicle and truck and bus tyres, although in a special department with high security due to the advanced technology we use in our motorsport tyres,” explains Hirohide Hamashima, Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development.
The method of production for a Formula One tyre is almost the same as that of a passenger vehicle tyre. Whereas the manufacture of a tyre for a road car or commercial vehicle is a highly automated process to ensure the consumer gets the best possible product at the most competitive price, the highly specialised nature of a Formula One tyre and the relatively low volumes involved means there is a greater amount of human intervention in their production.
“When we manufacture Formula One tyres there is a lot of human intervention,” says Hamashima, “especially during the assembly process. This is a very important factor in making the green tyre, which is what we call the tyre before vulcanisation.
“Formula One tyres are made on a dedicated production line, but in the same factory which makes passenger car and truck tyres, as well as many prototype tyres. The machinery is similar to that used for making commercial tyres for the roads, but we do not see road tyres of the size we see made for Formula One, and the compounds used on a race track would not last long if we tried to use them on the road.”
Today Bridgestone is the world’s largest producer of rubber products, so its yearly production of around 60,000 Bridgestone Potenza Formula One tyres is not so substantial when Bridgestone makes 16.9 percent of the world’s production of tyres [based on 2007 data].
Bridgestone’s Formula One tyres are produced in Japan in a special department of a production facility located in Tokyo.
“Our Formula One tyres are produced in a factory that makes passenger vehicle and truck and bus tyres, although in a special department with high security due to the advanced technology we use in our motorsport tyres,” explains Hirohide Hamashima, Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development.
The method of production for a Formula One tyre is almost the same as that of a passenger vehicle tyre. Whereas the manufacture of a tyre for a road car or commercial vehicle is a highly automated process to ensure the consumer gets the best possible product at the most competitive price, the highly specialised nature of a Formula One tyre and the relatively low volumes involved means there is a greater amount of human intervention in their production.
“When we manufacture Formula One tyres there is a lot of human intervention,” says Hamashima, “especially during the assembly process. This is a very important factor in making the green tyre, which is what we call the tyre before vulcanisation.
“Formula One tyres are made on a dedicated production line, but in the same factory which makes passenger car and truck tyres, as well as many prototype tyres. The machinery is similar to that used for making commercial tyres for the roads, but we do not see road tyres of the size we see made for Formula One, and the compounds used on a race track would not last long if we tried to use them on the road.”
The tyres are also all subject to high levels of checking and quality control to ensure they meet Bridgestone’s and the teams’ high standards.
On top of Bridgestone’s measures, motorsport’s governing body, the Federation International de L’Automobile (FIA), issues a bar code for every tyre produced, and determines who gets which individual tyre.
“This is a very fair system so nobody can accuse us of bias towards any particular team,” says Hamashima, “as our measures and the FIA’s measures make it impossible to favour any particular competitor, even if we wanted to do so.”
The production facility which makes Bridgestone’s Formula One Tyres also produces tyres for MotoGP and the GP2 Asia Series, as well as domestic motorsport in Japanese series.
“We make motorsport tyres for a variety of categories and there have been many successes on our tyres made in Japan,” says Hamashima. “Recently we saw Valentino Rossi win the MotoGP riders’ championship using Bridgestone tyres, and this was particularly good for us as he took the title in Japan, at the Twin Ring Motegi.”
As well as having production based in Japan, Bridgestone’s technical centre is located in Tokyo and it’s here where all the information gathered throughout the year is analysed and used to improve Bridgestone’s knowledge.
“Over a race weekend or at a test we accumulate a large amount of information and this data is all used to help us develop our knowledge so we can make better products in the future,” explains Hamashima. “It’s all part of the process of ongoing development.”
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