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F1: Bridgestone's choice of tires for inaugural Korean Formula 1 race

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Khatir Soltani
The inaugural Korean Grand Prix at Yeongam near the city of Mokpo will be held next weekend, October 22-24. It is be unknown territory for the teams, the drivers and for tire supplier Bridgestone.

The all-new Korean International Circuit will give teams and drivers a real challenge, as it has never previously held a motorsport event.

“This Grand Prix presents everyone in Formula 1 with an interesting challenge as the circuit has only recently been completed, said Hirohide Hamashima, Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tire Development.

“This means that we cannot look at any data from races there so we have to rely on simulation data. From this information, the maximum and average speeds will be 310 km/h and 205 km/h respectively. This places the track between Catalunya and Istanbul and close to Sepang in terms of speed, which is an important factor determining the allocation of the hard and soft tires.”

“Korea should be a good test of all of our technology and I expect all the team engineers to be working very hard indeed over the weekend trying to understand the best car set-ups and tire strategies for the race. As it will be the first motor racing event at the facility we expect a lot of track surface evolution over the weekend. It will also be interesting to see how the teams and individual drivers adapt to this track, particularly those in the hunt for the championship battle,” Hamashima declared.

Bridgestone will bring 2000 tires to Korea (hard, soft, intermediate/wets).

Khatir Soltani
Khatir Soltani
Automotive expert
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