F1 Feature - Bridgestone's Home Coming
21/09/2007
Bridgestone Motorsport heads home for the 15th round of the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship which will take place in the Japanese company’s home nation at the Mount Fuji race circuit.
Bridgestone has come a long way since it was founded in 1931 by Shojiro Ishibashi, whose name translated means ‘stone bridge’. Mr Ishibashi had an eye on international expansion when he started his company, which is why he opted for the name Bridgestone.
Motorsport activities for Bridgestone started in its home market at the first Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka in 1963, where tyres from the company’s ordinary road car range were used. Ten years later, Bridgestone began supplying tyres to the premier racing category in Japan, Formula Nippon as it is now known, and still continues to do so to this day.
Just three years after the company started supplying Formula Nippon, Bridgestone tyres made their unofficial Formula One Grand Prix debut at Mount Fuji in 1976. Japanese racing driver Kazuyoshi Hoshino, in a privately-entered Tyrrell 007, was the only car on Bridgestone tyres in the 27 car entry for this event.
Despite the odds being against him, and racing against drivers the likes of Mario Andretti and James Hunt, the driver known as the ‘fastest Japanese’ ended up running as high as third in the variable-weather race. Unfortunately, the team did not have enough Bridgestone dry tyres fitted to rims for the drying circuit and Hoshino was unable to finish the race.
“In 1976, in the wet conditions of the Japanese Grand Prix, Hoshino took third position during the race and this made everybody recognise Japanese racing drivers and Japanese tyre performance,” says Hirohide Hamashima, Director of Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development.
“The tyres were made especially for those races and after Formula One, we used the same compound in our karting tyres, helping us to enlarge our market share in this area.”
The following season, Formula One visited Mount Fuji once more, and two entries in the field were shod with Bridgestone tyres. This time Hoshino was joined by Noritake Takahara, with both drivers driving Japanese-built Kojima-Cosworth cars. Hoshino qualified and finished eleventh in the race, while Takahara did not finish the race because of a first lap accident.
It would be another 20 years before Bridgestone made its official debut in Formula One, with the start of its current participation in the championship in 1997, but Bridgestone’s participation in Japanese motorsport continued.
Indeed, the same Kazuyoshi Hoshino who competed in the two Japanese Grands Prix at Mount Fuji was still competing in the Japanese F3000 championship, which later became Formula Nippon, and used Bridgestone tyres to win the title in 1993, aged 46.
Hoshino was up against some pretty stiff opposition, with the 1993 championship featuring drivers such as Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Eddie Irvine and Mika Salo, all of whom would later make their debuts in Formula One, and all of whom would use Bridgestone Potenza Formula One tyres in their careers.
“He raced against many Formula one drivers, even Michael Schumacher, and he was fighting with them on track,” says Hamashima. “He won the 1993 Japanese F3000 championship on Bridgestone tyres, and raced other drivers like Eddie Irvine, Jonny Herbert, Mika Salo, Ivan Capelli and Ralf Schumacher. He was known as ‘the fastest Japanese.”
Much of Bridgestone’s current motorsport programme originates in Japan, with Formula One, GP2 Series and MotoGP tyres all made in the Bridgestone Motorsport production facility in Kodaira City, Tokyo.
Bridgestone’s Motorsport Technical Division operates out of this same Kodaira facility and the department plays a major role in the design of all Bridgestone’s motorsport tyres.
“The Technical Centre controls the design of Formula One, GP2 Series, Super GT, Formula Nippon and racing kart tyres,” says Hamashima. “Additionally, we co-operate closely with our colleagues in our United States Technical Centre where the IndyCar and ChampCar tyres are produced.”
Formula One coming back to Mount Fuji is a big event for Bridgestone. “We will have many events and activities, as well as having many of our Japanese engineers in attendance to experience the Grand Prix. There will also be lots of support from the many Bridgestone employees in the grandstands,“ says Hamashima.
With the circuit extensively re-profiled since its last Grand Prix incarnation, Fuji will be a challenge for the Formula One teams, says Hamashima. “The long straight makes overtaking easier, and the fastest corner is wide enough to have more than one racing line.”
“After the first corner there is a short straight so cars can overtake in to Coca Cola corner and before 100R. After 100R there is a hairpin, but this may be a little bit difficult to overtake at because there is only one racing line here.”
“After the hairpin, however, there is the second high speed corner, 300R, which is the longest corner on the track. Turn Eight is another overtaking opportunity as it demands heavy braking. We should certainly see some good racing.”