Bridgestone bring asymmetric front to Germany

Bridgestone will bring their asymmetric front tyre to this weekend’s German Grand Prix. The unique demands of the Sachsenring, ten left handers and only three right hand corners, means that this is the first time in 2015 that the Japanese manufacturer will offer this specification.

The German track is one of the toughest challenges of the year for Bridgestone with the right hand side of the tyre cooling significantly throughout the lap because of the number of left hand corners. This presents a unique challenge because Turn 11, the infamous waterfall corner, is one of the accident hot spots of the season.

With a softer compound on the right hand shoulder to counteract the cooling of that side of the tyre before Turn 11 and allow riders to warmup the shoulder from 30 degrees of lean angle. The asymmetric front slick has a medium compound rubber on the centre section and left shoulder, with soft compound rubber on the right shoulder.

Shinju Aoki outlined the challenge:

“Sachsenring is a very demanding circuit for tyres as it features long-radius corners where the bikes stay at high lean angles for long periods,” said Aoki. “In particular, the high-speed left-hand corners that feed onto the back and main straights generate a lot of temperature in the left shoulder of the rear tyre. To meet the demands of this circuit, asymmetric rear slicks with much harder rubber compounds on the left shoulder are provided, while the softer compounds on the right shoulder help retain tyre temperature for maximum safety in the slow right-handers.

“Our front tyre options for this circuit include an asymmetric front slick which will be available at this challenging circuit for the first time. This asymmetric front slick will be available alongside the soft and medium front slick options to ensure the riders can sufficiently cope with a wide range of track and weather conditions.”