"Our tyre engineers are the link between the teams and Bridgestone, so they fulfil a very important role," explains Bridgestone Motorsport Head of Track Engineering Operations, Kees van de Grint.

Preparation for a race weekend starts well in advance with an event a programme which is prepared for presentation to the teams. This outlines the technical limits for the forthcoming race weekend. All safety considerations are outlined, such as the tyre pressure range and camber angles which the teams have to adhere to, as well as observations of the two tyre compounds in use for that weekend.

"The programme put together before the race weekend contains vital information for the teams both regarding safety and also to help them to get the best performance from the two compounds of Bridgestone Potenza we will bring to the race," explains van de Grint.

The Thursday of a race weekend is generally the first day that the engineers arrive at the track. This day is termed as set-up day, and the engineers will check the tyres that have been allocated by the FIA to their team. As the tyres are fitted by the technicians, so the engineers provide an extra mechanism to ensure the tyres have been fitted correctly.

The sets will also be checked with regards to their balance weights and all the sets are recorded. On this day the engineers will usually have a meeting with their team, although the schedule for meetings varies along the pit lane as everyone has their own way of setting about trying to win grands prix.

In this first meeting of the weekend anything that has emerged since the last grand prix or test will be discussed. The reports from the previous grand prix will be outlined as well as the programme for the weekend ahead. This meeting is one of two-way interaction between the team and Bridgestone to ensure both understand the weekend ahead from a tyre perspective.

An outline weather report is given to the teams, but as a reference only as the teams usually have their own in depth weather forecasting.

"Although there is no running of the cars on Thursday there is still a lot to be accomplished at the track and the engineers have a busy day," explains van de Grint. "This is the only day at the track to prepare for the sessions so the work done at this time is very important."

On Friday the first running of the grand prix weekend takes place and the two 90 minute practice session give the tyre engineers their first data of the weekend to be worked on. Through the sessions they monitor the tyre pressures, temperatures and performance to ensure they are maintained within the Bridgestone guidelines as well as monitoring and recording anything that affects tyre performance during the session.

The appearance of the tyres is, of course, checked and recorded. The tyre engineers work with the drivers to ensure they are happy, understand the tyre performance and are maximising their use of them, making any recommendations where necessary.

"It is very important for our engineers to be able to work with the drivers and interpret their feedback both when they are out of the car in meeting and when they are in the car giving their comments over the radio," says van de Grint. "The driver's feel and feedback from behind the wheel is still very important and it's part of the engineer's role to understand this feedback."

After the running on track the engineers still have plenty of work to do, with compiling their electronic reports which are put on a database. The engineers can now look for trends across all of the data and from this they are able to provide a general guide to teams based on the information they have, without disclosing particular details of specific teams.

Saturday is very much a repeat of Friday's activities but paying particular attention to see if there have been any track improvements. After the practice session and qualifying the data is analysed and then suggestions are made for tyre choice in the race. All relevant data is updated and given back to the teams.

On race day morning an updated weather forecast is given along with an overview of tyre performance and trends over the weekend. Advice on what temperature the tyre blankets should be set at for the race as well as the recommended tyre pressures within the pressure guidelines is given.

Preparations for the race are made including ensuring everything flows in the team garage during the race. During the race itself it's back to checking tyre appearance, monitoring pressures and temperatures, but with the added pressure of being under race conditions.

"Despite the intensity of the race the engineer still has specific tasks to be done and these have to be achieved without affecting the team's work," explains van de Grint. "The pits are a very busy place during a race and also a critical place too with the importance of time so the engineer always should be vigilant, even if it's a race like we saw at the Nurburgring when the pits were a very busy place to be."

A lap chart is also made by the engineer and any driver comments during the course of the race are noted. This is combined with all the other information recorded and all the information is then processed after the race.

Whilst the rest of the paddock is being dismantled, the engineers are still hard at work completing their reports and analysing the data from the race. Some teams even have meetings to discuss this on the evening of the race.

"It is certainly a full weekend for our engineers and the work starts well before and continues long after the race has finished," confirms van de Grint.

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