F1 Nutter - Q and A with Hisao Suganuma

Q and A with Bridgestone's Hisao Suganuma

With rubber now the key battlefield in F1, it's over to Bridgestone's technical manager.

Q: How many Formula 1 tyres does Bridgestone produce each year?
A: About 50,000 tyres in a season. We always prepare and we need to make lots of tests before the race tyres. That's all the test tyres and race tyres too.

Q: Do you have your own car telemetry or use the teams telemetry, also how much can you learn from it?
A: We don't have our own system. When we need some data we always ask the team. We can compare G force or acceleration data so it's very convenient.

Q: In your view, is it and advantage to you to supply only one top team rather than two?
A: If you have two or more teams with us we can make some more data so it's not only the question of preference of one team, the testing will be more important so only working with one top team isn't an advantage.

Q: What qualifications or degree is needed to become a motor sport tyre designer for a company such as Bridgestone and how did you start off?
A: A passion to be a good engineer is the main thing. Most of the Bridgstone engineers in Japan have a masters degree in Industrial Chemistry. I like Chemistry very much, somehow I became an engineer.

Q: What makes Bridgestone faster than Michelin in rain?
A: To be honest it's difficult to answer but we work very well to design the tyres. We use a programme which sees how the water goes through the pattern into the tyre, then we can optimise our pattern to show the best performance in rain conditions. So far, our design is successful therefore we have some advantage. Our compounder did a great job to design a wet compound, so both of these things give us an advantage in wet conditions.

Q: Would you prefer a return to slicks?
A: Yes, slick tyre provides best performance of racing tyres. From a safety point of view, the FIA decided to go to the groove tyre therefore we should stay with the groove tyre.

Q: Do you think Ferrai's dominance has been enhanced with your involvement?
A: I would say so but the important thing is understanding each other. They need to understand how to use a tyre and from our point of view we need to know how the car behaves with our tyres. This makes very good performance advantage.

Q: Do you think that the world of Formula 1 has become more competetive ever since two tyre companies started to provide tyres to the field?
A: Yes. As you can see in lap times, when we were sole supplier the lap time difference was 3 or 4 seconds. We're making a huge amount of performance difference. The conditions are getting tougher and tougher.

Q: what kind of problems do the groves in the tyres cause to design?
A: Grooves reduce the thickness of the tread which gives a different sensation to the car which isn't good for the car. Stability with a groove tyre is a key to designing a good F1 tyre.

Q: How much does an F1 tyre cost?
A: Very difficult to estimate. To be honest I never think about how much the F1 tyre costs if we were to sell it in the market so I can't answer the exact price of a F1 tyre I'm afraid. Quite expensive though!

Q: Why do high performance road tyres have very low profiles, while F1 tyres have very tall sidewalls?
A: The ringside of F1 is decided by regulations, we have to use 13 inch diameter rim. From a tyre point of view, it's not necessary to be a low profile tyre. Low profile tyres provides some good change of direction but even with a F1 tyre we can give some good performance into the tyre

Q: What is the fundamental difference between hard and soft compounds and how does it affect performance?
A: Normally a compound provides better consistency during the race. Softer tyres provides better grip but there are issues with consistency. The team or drivers like to use the softer sides of the compounds.

Q: How hot do the tyre warmers make the tyres?
A: Normally the blanket temperature is set by the team, normally about 70 or 80 degrees C for each tyre.

Q: How do you find out the cause of a blow out, even when the tyre itself is completely destroyed?
A: After the tyre explodes, it's difficult to find out what's going on. All you can do is find out what state the tyres are in. Then try to estimate what happened on the tyre. We would collect all the bits of tyre from the track and try and reconstruct the tyre and try to find out what happened.

IanE: Is the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka the most important race of the year for Bridgestone?
A: Of course the GP in our home country is important for us, but to be honest Suzuka is just one of the races. This year we will pass the 100 race milestone since we entered F1 so from that point, I'd like to win that race really. It should be a good party.

Q: How many engineers do you have at each GP and are they assigned to individual teams? What do the engineers do at the GP?
A: We have about 10-12 personnel who are assigned to each team. This provides better communication between us and the team. During a race weekend, we check how the cars are doing and lap times, we check the tyre temperatures in the garage and on each run, the driver tells us about how it's running, which is all important information for the tyre people, which gets recorded.

Q: You have a close relationship with Ferrari in tyre development, but do you ever get directly involved with Michael Shumacher himself, or is the test driver your primary source of driver feedback?
A: We work with both. For the tyre testing, sometimes only the test driver will attend so when we try to compare the new tyre specs we need to work out with the test driver. On the other hand, sometimes the GP driver attends the test so we'd work with Michael Schumacher or Rubens Barrichello so we work equally with both.

Q: By how much will the F1 cars be quicker if they ran on slick tyres instead of groove?
A: We never run with slick tyres but I have to say if we make optimimum design with slicks, one or two seconds per lap will be improved.

Q: What was the most unforgettable moments of your F1 career?
A: Our first GP win, 1998 in Melbourne. I was the engineer for McLaren at the time and it was our first winning race in Formula 1 so that was unforgettable.

Q: How close are the compounds/technology used in F1 tyres to the ones we buy for our cars?
A: The compound itself is very different. If you look at how those tyres last, road cars are normally running 10,000 kms. Requirement for a F1 tyre is to only last 200 kms. A little bit too radical for the performance.

Q: Why is it that you sometimes you use used tyres on ur cars when you are making a pitstop?
A: During every GP you can only use 10 sets from Friday to Sunday. On Friday we have to use at least one set therefore sometimes the new tyres run out after the race starts. In that case, we have to use a used tyre. On the other hand, sometimes the used tyres can give better understeer so the teams choose to use a used tyre anyway.

Q: Do other Bridgestone users get the same advantages out of the tyres as Ferrari? It appears that the tyres are built to Ferrari spec.
A: It's not true. As you can see, the Ferrari is dominant, that is because they do lots of testing for us, therefore they can understand how to use the tyres. The tyres which come from these testing should suit the other cars as well.

Q: What was the reaction of your company to the arrival of another tyre manufacturer in F1?
A: If we have a competitor in F1 that is nice because we can show our tyre technology and the racing is a showcase of the tyre companies so we can show our technologies relative to the other companies. Winning races is very important. It's getting harder and harder to be competitive in each of the races.

Q: Why are the tyres always black? Is this to do with heat absorption?
A: It comes from the carbon black. It's the reinforcement used in making the rubber. It's the best reinforcement for the rubber and makes the tyres black. Alternatively, we have some different colour reinforcement so we can make different ones, either blue or red, but it's not as strong as carbon black so that's why we use black for the races.

Q: What do you do with all the used tyres?
A: After the race, all of them are examined by other engineers and some of them are shipped out to Japan for further investigation. After that we burn them in our facility.

Q: Is much attention paid to the weight of a tyre, or are there restrictions?
A: When we design the tyre we tried to reduce the weight as much as we can.

Q: Are the compounds of Bridgestone's F1 tyre's similar to their CHAMP car tyres?
A: They're totally different and the conditions are. Some of the compounds are quite similar to the Champ car tyres but I don't think we can use the Champ car compounds in F1.

Q: Would you notice big differences between tyre wear from one driver to another? What driver characteristics would be the cause?
A: Sometimes we can see differences in drivers. Driving styles between the drivers, one driver likes to understeer, that's making the difference of distribution in the tyre. With an understeer driver the front tyres have more wear and the oversteer drivers are using the rear tyres more so you can see more wear on the rear tyres.

Q: Is air used to inflate an F1 tire just like a road car?
A: When we fit a tyre, we're using normal air. Some teams change to nitrogen by themselves. I don't believe that it makes a huge difference, as long as they are not dry.

Q: How do you feel about the tyre maufacturers being forced to slow the cars down and not the FIA by reducing wing/downforce rules?
A: If we put more groove on the tyre the speed may reduce even more but we're not sure that is good for safety or not. If you think about a 100 metre runner wearing high heels in a race, their feet are more fragile and not so safe. We believe a similar thing could happen with tyres.

Q: Do all Bridgestone sponsored teams receive the same tyres?
A: Yes. Every team is using exactly the same tyres. In the GP weekend we have two specs, so one team uses one and the other team uses the other one. They have the opportunity to use the same spec though.

Q: Qhich is the most difficult circuit as far as the tyre concerns?
A: Barcelona or Silverstone from a wear point of view, we always have to think about that at these tracks. In Malaysia, we had to go to a softer compound because the track is really smooth. To be competitive we should do one stop strategy so Malaysia is also important for tyre wear. Our tyres didn't show too well at this so we need to work that out for next year.

Q: Has the introduction of traction control changed the design of tyres?
A: Initially we thought the traction control would help the tyre innovation as it gives less sliding in the corners but later we found that sometimes it's making more wear in the rear tyres. We could see high wear sometimes but we always take into account which type of wearing so it's not so much effective from a design point of view.

Q: What is the first design issue when designing a new tyre?
A: Several points. What area of performance we need to include, then we get to work, we start to think what needs to be changed, like the construction, shape or compounds.

Thanks to Hisao for his time.

Transcript from ITV's live web chat.

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