Bridgestone announces more tire compounds

Bridgestone, Formula 1's sole tire provider, has revealed which of its compounds will be used for the races up to and including the Turkish Grand Prix. Two types, a softer and harder, must be used by each driver at least once over the course of a race. Since 2007, F1 regulations have stated that a harder compound tire (as known as 'Prime') must be used during a race as well as the softer which is on offer on any given Grand Prix weekend (labeled as 'Option' and indicated by a green-painted sidewall).

There are four dry weather, slick Bridgestone Potenza compounds in all: Hard, Medium, Soft and Super Soft. Only in the event of an officially declared Wet Race will the usage of two types of slick not be mandatory.

"Deciding which tires to bring to a Grand Prix is always a difficult decision, especially as we don't receive advance notification of the exact weather we will see at the race circuit over the three days of running," explains Hirohide Hamashima, Bridgestone's Head of Motorsport Tire Development.

"Tire performance in Bahrain was good, however we remain vigilant and safety is the overriding concern for us. Shanghai and Barcelona are both quite severe circuits and Istanbul, as we have seen in the past, is particularly severe. For Monaco this year we will have a gap in the allocation too, which is a change from the two softest compounds which we have taken previously."

Tire compounds for Rounds 1-7:

Bahrain Super Soft and Medium
Australia Soft and Hard
Malaysia Soft and Hard
China Soft and Hard
Spain Soft and Hard
Monaco Super Soft and Medium
Turkey Soft and Hard