Bridgestone makes an exception to its 2009 race tyre allocation philosophy of leaving a gap between 

compounds by bringing the soft and super soft tyres to the most slippery race of the year, the Monaco 

Grand Prix.

Despite its relatively short length, the 3.34km Monte Carlo track has a seemingly endless supply of 

corners with barely a straight to mention, all bordered by unyielding Armco barriers. To make matters 

more difficult, the track surface is polished smooth by constant road traffic through the year, meaning 

that finding grip is a big challenge. 

Both the soft and the super soft compounds are from the lower temperature operating range of 

Bridgestone’s F1 tyres, meaning quicker warm-up.

Also of note, Bridgestone will debut a new softer compound intermediate tyre at Monaco. This tyre has 

been designed to deliver more grip in the wet and will be used for the remainder of this season. Last 

season Lewis Hamilton won an eventful Monaco Grand Prix after using Bridgestone’s wet (now 

intermediate) and soft dry grooved tyres. 

Hirohide Hamashima -Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development, said: 

What are the challenges of Monaco? 

“Finding grip will be the main challenge on the streets of Monte Carlo. This is a very interesting circuit, 

and one where the track is made of many different types of surface as well as there being public road 

markings on the track. Also notable is that F1does not run on Friday, so the track conditions can change 

quite a lot between Thursday and Saturday. When there is no racing taking place, public vehicles and 

also people use the track. This makes it difficult for rubber to build up and the surface can become dirty 

again, which does not help the track surface develop well for racing.” 

How different is the new intermediate tyre? 

“The new intermediate tyre gives more grip through having a softer compound than the old one, but 

driving the latest specification F1 cars in the wet will always be a challenge, no matter what tyres are 

used. The latest cars have less downforce so less aerodynamic grip than before, and this is true in wet 

or dry conditions. In the dry, less downforce is not as much of a problem as the slick tyres have more 

grip than the previous grooved tyres, so there is more mechanical grip to counter the loss of 

aerodynamic grip.  In the wet, even with our new intermediate tyres, there is only slightly more grip than 

before. In the wet we still need the drainage channels in the tread to prevent aquaplaning, so the only 

grip improvement must come from new compound developments.” 

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

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