F1 Feature - Bridgestone Tyres On Track For The Road
05/09/2007
As Formula One heads to Monza for the Italian Grand Prix, Bridgestone Motorsport will visit a country where a considerable amount of Bridgestone’s passenger vehicle tyre development and testing takes place.
Bridgestone Europe has two proving ground test facilities in Italy, the most notable of which is the European Proving Ground (EUPG) at Aprilia, near Rome. The multi million Euro facility was opened in 2004 and enables testing of tyres for passenger cars, commercial vans, trucks, buses and agricultural vehicles.
This new 144-hectare proving ground gives Bridgestone the most modern and advanced year-round tyre testing facilities in Europe.
Its facilities include five wet skid-pad concentric circles with various surfaces and a groove-wandering lane, a bi-directional corner hydroplaning test facility, a new dry and wet braking test lay-out and truck and bus tyre garages.
The 4.2km dry handling circuit has been added to with a 1.6km wet handling track, completed this year.
Although Bridgestone’s Formula One tyres are not tested at this facility there is a Formula One link with one of the head test drivers being a former F1 driver himself.
Stefano Modena contested 70 Grands Prix from 1987 to 1992, twice finishing on the podium, but now he works for Bridgestone.
“In Bridgestone EUPG there are several tracks, one of which is the oval track which is 4.2km long with two banks, one of which is 36 degrees, the other is 37 degrees,” explains Modena.
“We also have a dry handling track, which has the option to switch layouts so you can have a very twisty track or a fast track, or something between the two,” explains Modena.
“We also have a wet handling track which is about 2km long, with a straight line and some left and right corners. Then we have areas where we use the test instruments, like the braking area, the skid pan, cornering aquaplaning, and surface noise, drive by and interior comfort noise.”
With such a motor racing background, Modena can use a very special skill set in his work for Bridgestone.
“Of course, when I was racing most of the time I was developing the cars with a fixed tyre, so that means one manufacturer and one model of tyre. For most of the time we were developing the car based on the tyre,” he explains.
“Here, it is the opposite, we have cars and other vehicles that are fixed and we are developing the tyre based on the vehicle. The engineers are changing different parameters on the tyres in order to achieve the best compromise with the vehicles.”
Bridgestone works with all the European manufacturers, meaning that at EUPG almost all of the cars which are sold in Europe will be put through their paces in Aprilia by the team of test drivers.
Although his experience as a racing driver aids him greatly in his work for Bridgestone, the requirements for a road tyre differ from the requirements for a race tyre.
In a race environment the priority after safety is finding a fast lap time and being able to sustain that time for however long is required, whether it be a handful of laps for qualifying, or a couple of hours running for endurance racing.
For road use, lap time is largely irrelevant, although some timed runs will take place to support other evaluations.
Bridgestone Motorsport’s Head of Track Engineering Operations, Kees van de Grint, recognises the importance of the proving ground.
“The proving ground is important as we can simulate and test in conditions which are very difficult to find nowadays outside a private test facility,” he explains. “We can create our own wet surfaces to test on without having to depend on nature to create a wet track.”
“Also, high speed testing outside the facility is difficult when you consider traffic laws! Without proper testing facilities it would be difficult to produce the best tyres.”