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Bridgestone dictates Formula1 running

22 January 99
Recent bad feeling between teams and sole tyre
manufacturer Bridgestone, leads one to ask what
the Japanese giant seeks to gain from a continuing
denial of their perceived ability to maintain a
constant tyre supply to the grid.
Bridgestone's might in the world of racing rubber
is undeniable. Goodyear who had been supplying the
entire grid for the past 30 odd years, with minimal
interruption from Michelin and Pirelli, made no
complaint about tyre supply and were in 1995,
supplying up to four grades of tyre to each team
for each race.
The Akron company remain today only third in size
to Bridgestone, even smaller than the Gallic
suppliers to the racing industry, Michelin. Yet their
exit from Formula1 can only detract from a sport
that they helped to develop.
If Bridgestone are to set the rules simply because
they now have a monopoly, then the teams should not
sit down and take it. Bosses in any one of their
41 factories world wide should know that Bridgestone
can now play to a global Television audience of some
5.5 billion viewers, which is the most successful
way of getting the Marque's visibility to countries
that up until their involvement in the Formula, had
never heard of them.
In Germany, Great Britain, Spain, France and Italy
brand recognition for Bridgestone had been increased
by 12% since the first Bridgestone shod cars rolled
off the grid in 1996. In the four years prior to that,
their was only an imperceptible increase in product
recognition of 0.8%. This represented a vast increase
in product sales to a company who, in one factory
alone, produce (excluding F1 tyres), 33,500 tyres per
day, seven days a week.
Bridgestone managing director Yoichiro Kaizaki is
well aware of the importance of Formula1 to their
master plan to reach 20% of global market share.
"Our successful participation in Formula1 has been
particularly effective, especially in improving brand
awareness in Europe," he said. "We want to be the
clear leader in tyre sales around the world and to
increase our actual share."
With nine race wins, a drivers', and a constructors'
championship under their steel belted radials after
only two seasons in Formula1, it proves that they
have the technology and the financial clout to
produce the goods.
The two Cray T90 computers used to calculate reactions
to different compounds and temperature-related tyre
wear modifications have cost the company many millions,
they supply tyres to the CART series in the US under
their Firestone badge and have a yearly turnover of
$18 billion. Even Formula1 ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone
would blanch at such figures. Yet they seek to dictate
to the teams when it is obviously within their
capabilities to supply what is in effect, a minuscule
amount of their total output for the year.
The fact that the drivers are unhappy with the grip
and balance of the tyres, however, has little to do
with Bridgestone and everything to do with the FIA.
In this case both teams and tyre manufacturer are
puppets that dance to Mosley's tune within the rules
laid down by the sport's hierarchy.
Teams have reluctantly agreed to limit their testing
to a maximum of 50 days per year and only on
officially sanctioned days at specific venues of
their collective choosing. Formula1 is in effect
kow-towing to the corporate giants that seek to
control the sport for the big bucks that it can
generate. After all, less tyres, less development
- now that the competition has vanished, more profit
for the company.
Bridgestone technical director Hirohide Hamashima
declared his intentions to be honourable and
there is indeed nothing to suggest otherwise, but
the conundrum remains. Why can't they produce and
transport the tyres required by the teams? As
Hamashima himself said, "Our Formula1 development
programme kicked off in 1989, without official
approval". It doesn't take a mathematician to work
out that they have therefore had seven years to get
their organisation and production schedules into gear.
Goodyear never flinched at the challenge and even
in their final fling in '98, were producing almost
twice the number of tyres as the previous year in
differing compounds and sizes despite having a
reduced number of teams it supplied to.
Acknowledging Goodyear's enormous contribution to
Formula1, Hamashima said, "Without them, Formula1
might have come to an end. We are now aware of the
task that faces us next season and we will make the
maximum effort to allow Formula1 to continue as the
top level of motor racing."
Whether Bridgestone do this or not, seems somehow
dependent on how the teams fall in with their
dictatorial testing schedules. What remains certain
is that until another usurper enters the ring they
can guarantee wins and championships, as Goodyear did
for the better part of a quarter of a century.
Hamashima himself would do well to hark back to
Bridgestone's humble beginnings. On March 1st 1931,
in a small town on the island of Kyushi off the coast
of Southern Japan, one Shojiro Ishibashi started
moulding liquid rubber into tyres to shoe the Japanese
car industry. 'Ishibashi' means 'Bridge of Stone'
and it was to become the family name throughout the
world.
There is nothing wrong in making a profit but the
dedication that it took for the young Ishibashi to
turn out that first mould must remain. If Bridgestone
are indeed sandbagging, then the FIA should step in
to suggest that they supply the tyres as required or
pull out.
It is crucially important that there remains a glimmer
of the sporting aspect of Formula1 already dominated
by corporate interests and indeed, for its own self
respect. Profit, while important for sponsorship,
must not be the final motivation on which the sport exists.
Chris Richardson

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