Bridgestone going harder at Monza
Monza is a high-speed challenge for competitors, with long straights through the circuit which is located in parkland within the city of Monza, 20km north of Milan. The long straights mean that cars run with low downforce set-ups, so in the slower corners the tires don’t have the same levels of assistance from the cars’ aerodynamics.
Traction out of the slow corners is another particular demand at Monza, so the rear tires in particular suffer a harsh workout. As a contrast from Spa, the weather in Italy is usually hot, and the tire blistering seen at this venue last season means that this year Bridgestone is bringing harder tires, the hard and medium, as opposed to the medium and soft used in 2007.
The long straights mean that tire pressure is an area that teams will have to monitor closely. If there is too little pressure the tires will overheat along the long straights, but if there is too much pressure grip through the corners will be compromised.
Hirohide Hamashima, Tire Development Director
“Monza is an exciting and challenging race venue. There are high speed straights and teams use low levels of downforce. This places more emphasis on the tires in the corners as there is less aerodynamic assistance for grip."
"We see quite high levels of wear on the left hand tires because of the high speed corners, and the rear tires have high traction demands on them too, so it is quite a severe circuit on tires. The track surface also presents a challenge, as some of it is older and rougher whilst some of it has been resurfaced quite recently so is smoother."
“Last year with the soft and medium compound allocation we saw blistering occur here, in particular on the soft compound. With the hard and medium compound allocation blistering should be less of a factor for the weekend."