Passion for Excellence
Bridgestone has been at the fore-front of innovation
and development in motor sport since making its
racing debut at the first Japanese Grand Prix in
Suzuka in 1963. Motor sport is now a crucial arena
for expressing Bridgestone's corporate identity on a
global level.
The tyres supplied by Bridgestone for that first
race were ordinary motor car tyres but within three
years Bridgestone had developed a racing tyre and
began its bold climb towards the summit of motor
sport.
The 1970's was an era of rapid economic growth for
Japan and the domestic motor racing scene grew
just
as spectacularly. Bridgestone soon provided tyres in
many categories, using motor racing to
promote sales
of products.
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Europe became the next target. Bridgestone entered
the F2 series, the category below F1, in 1981 and
incredibly monopolised the front row of the grid in
the very first race.
Bridgestone's first victory
came in the next race and a magnificent maiden
season was capped when a driver running on
Bridgestone tyres won the title.
This European
success was a major contribution in POTENZA becoming
Japan's top brand of high-performance passenger car
tyre. |
AMG Mercedes-Benz recognised the superiority of
Bridgestone racing tyres when choosing the company
as its partner for the German Touring Car
Championship (DTM). In 1992, the second year of
competition, Bridgestone supplied the winning tyres.
The AMG Mercedes-Benz team went on to claim two
titles in a row in 1994 and 1995. AMG then decided
Bridgestone tyres were ideal for its passenger cars
and when Bridgestone began competing in F1, this
trust was the basis for its selection by the McLaren
Mercedes-Benz team.
In the United States, meanwhile, the 1988 merger
with Firestone provided an opportunity to compete
again in the Indycar Series. In 1995, Bridgestone
was behind Firestone's comeback to Indycar racing
after a 21-year absence. Soon the victories were
piling up and today Bridgestone is the one-make tyre
supplier to the two top series competitions in
American motor sports.
In 1995 then-Bridgestone President Yoichiro Kaizaki
gave the go-ahead for the company's drive into F1.
Bridgestone originally planned to begin competing in
1998 but development advanced so smoothly the
schedule was brought forward to 1997. Four teams
were supplied in the first year with Prost driver
Olivier Panis scoring Bridgestone's first points
with fifth in the first race.
Panis finished third in the second race and for the
first time ever an F1 driver was wearing a red
Bridgestone cap as he celebrated on the podium. The
top teams were alerted to Bridgestone's abilities
and in the second year McLaren-Mercedes and Benetton
joined Bridgestone's existing partners.
The Bridgestone-McLaren combination quickly gained
F1 supremacy with the Drivers' and Manufacturers'
titles won in 1998. When Goodyear pulled out in
1999, Bridgestone became the sole supplier - a
position it had never dreamed of. It lasted two
years until the return of Michelin when the tyre
development battle was resumed.
Bridgestone's domination continued with Ferrari,
winning six successive Manufacturers' titles between
1999-2004 and five Drivers' titles in succession
with Michael Schumacher. The German had begun his
career in karts on Bridgestone tyres, perhaps
destiny was at work.
Bridgestone's activities in motorbike racing began
in the early 1980's with the All Japan Championship.
The leap to the pinnacle of two-wheel racing - the
Moto GP - was made in 2002.
In 2003, Bridgestone developed a new brand vision
and established a brand message, "Passion for
Excellence". Motor racing activity is firmly
established as one component of Bridgestone's
brand-building strategy as the company pursues glory
on the race circuits of the world.
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Bridgestone began supplying tyres for
motorcycle racing in the 1980s, starting
with
the 250cc and 500cc classes of the
All Japan Championships. Tadayuki Okada
won Bridgestone's first series
championship in 1989.
At the Suzuka Grand Prix in the 1987
season, Honda works rider Dai Kobayashi
entered as a wild card in the 250cc
class and took a stunning victory to
give Bridgestone its first podium in a
world championship motorcycle race.
Bridgestone has continued to enjoy competitive |
success in WGP 125cc racing, having won more
than 20 titles to testify to the capabilities of
the tires.
The better the results in the 125cc class the
more keen the technical staff were to compete in
the top-level 500cc category, today's MotoGP
class. But even the step up from 125cc to 250cc
demanded clearing many technical hurdles,
ascending to the heights of 500cc would require
even greater technological progress.
But there was to be no step-by-step move to
500cc. In 2000 Keisuke Suzuki, then a
Bridgestone Board Member, now Advisor, was
impressed by the 150,000 enthusiastic fans he
saw packing the Spanish GP. The daring decision
to begin developing tyres for 500cc competition
was made.
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With the cooperation of Honda Racing (HRC), a
bike was borrowed for testing. The project team
was christened "Rey Project" - 'Rey" means
"king" in Spanish.
The project team was assembled from staff who
had no experience working with racing tyre
development so would bring no preconceived
notions to the effort. The goal was to take a
more scientific approach to tyre development.
In
January 2001 the first track tests were
conducted at Jerez in Spain. To accompany |
real-world testing, a drum tester specifically
designed for motorbikes was created to
scientifically develop and evaluate tyres. Eight
months after the first tests the decision was made
to enter the 2002 championship.
Bridgestone certainly received a baptism of fire
as the differences between testing and actual
racing in the two-wheeled world were soon
glaringly obvious. Testing had been conducted at
five or six circuits where GP events were held
but some races were on circuits where the tyres
had never been tested. MotoGP had also made
significant changes to its regulations in 2002,
allowing 4-stroke and 2-stroke engines to run in
the same races.
Teams using Bridgestone tyres had 2-stroke
engines, and the inferior power compared to
4-stroke competitors was undeniable. The losses
piled up, but in the latter half of the season
Bridgestone gradually started to see some
results. In qualifying for the last race, the
Australian Grand Prix, Bridgestone-shod bikes
took pole, third and fourth positions on the
front row of the grid.
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In 2003 all the Bridgestone-shod bikes boasted
four-stroke engines and Japanese rider Makoto
Tamada was racing for Honda. The second year
of
the partnership between Bridgestone and
Proton
showed promise.
In his debut year, Tamada
produced some notable performances finishing
third at the Brazilian Grand Prix and fourth in
Italy.
Tamada's two finishes in the upper ranks proved
that Bridgestone's tyre performance was
approaching the top level. But the
hurdles to |
claiming a world championship remained a
formidable challenge.
Bridgestone achieved the win it had been looking
for when Tamada swept past a stream of riders,
including reigning champion Valentino Rossi, to
win the Brazilian Grand Prix in Rio on his Camel
Honda. Tamada's eventual two victories and three
pole positions in 2004 exceeded Bridgestone’s
expectations. Ducati joined the list of
manufacturers supplied by Bridgestone for the
2005 season with two victories for Loris
Capirossi the highlight of the year.
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2006 saw Bridgestone round off its strongest
season to date. With a total of four victories,
11 individual podium positions and six pole
positions, it became clear that significant technical advances had been made in
Bridgestone’s fifth MotoGP season.
The final race of the year in Valencia perfectly
encapsulated Bridgestone’s successful season
with Ducati duo Troy Bayliss and Loris Capirossi
taking the team and Bridgestone’s first ever
one-two after what was a faultless weekend. |
Capirossi’s victories in Jerez, Brno and Motegi
enabled him to take an excellent third in the championship. His season-opening Spanish success
also marked the first ever victory on European
soil
by a Bridgestone-shod rider.
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For 2007, Bridgestone increases its team
portfolio with the introduction of Gresini Honda
and Pramac D’Antin to the ever-growing
Bridgestone family.
Alongside Ducati, Kawasaki
and Suzuki, these new teams have already
provided Bridgestone with invaluable testing
feedback for the coming season.
Meticulous race
preparations will be more important than ever
before with the additional introduction of new tyre regulations, which stipulate that each
rider is allowed a maximum of 31 tyres |
per
weekend. Supplying four different manufacturers
will undoubtedly provide Bridgestone with its
toughest challenge yet at the pinnacle of
motorcycle racing, but Bridgestone is confident
in its endeavour to achieve even more MotoGP
success.
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