Bridgestone to develop until end of 2015

Bridgestone insists that it will continue to develop more ‘state-of-the-art’ technologies right through to the end of its tenure in MotoGP™ at the end of 2015.

Before last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, Bridgestone – the sole tyre supplier of the MotoGP™ class since 2009 – announced that it has extended its contract for 2015, but that it would then pull out of the sport at the end of the campaign. However, the Japanese manufacturer stresses that it will not calm its development pace until then.

“We will still continue to develop new technologies, as we want to leave the championship at the end of next season in the best way possible,” explains Bridgestone’s Masao Azuma.

“It is in our interest to keep our development programme going strong right until the end of our tenure in MotoGP™, as there is still a lot for us to learn that we can then migrate to our range of motorcycle road tyres. We are currently developing new advances in technology, particularly for the front tyre, that we will be providing to teams for testing purposes in the coming months.

“People can expect to see some state-of-the-art tyre technology being introduced to the MotoGP™ World Championship over the next 18 months.”

With Bridgestone having announced its exit at the end of 2015, a tender has now gone out for a new tyre supplier. This tender will close on Thursday 22 May.