By Huw Alban
December 20 2005

In 2006 Midland will benefit from the tyre work undertaken by Bridgestone's two new teams Toyota and Williams. The tyre manufacturer suffered in 2005 due to a lack of competitive teams running on it's rubber, but has now recently witnessed a brighter start to the 2006 season. Midland recently completed a productive 5 day test in Jerez, one day of which concentrated solely on wet tyre developments. For 2006 Toyota and Williams are joining Midland and Ferrari in using Bridgestone products, a fact that is sure to benefit the Silverstone based team. According to the Japanese tyre manufacturer a significant amount of work was completed during December testing which his given the company a development strategy up to the beginning of the 2006 season. This has to be yet more good news for Midland.

Not only have we recently had it confirmed that the car is 100% definately new, but now we should also be reaping the benefits of having two Grand Prix winning teams, and the 2005 season's most improved team, testing and developing the tyres we'll be using next year. The same arrangement certainly helped McLaren and Renault throughout the 2005 season !

"After using the Barcelona test to establish a baseline with our two new teams, we have been able to run all four teams on similar tyre programmes in Jerez," Bridgestone Motorsport test operations manager Kaz Hamamura was recently quoted as saying by various new sources.

"This has subsequently provided us with good, consistent data and given us a clearer picture of our future development direction. Our rear tyre development, for example, has been particularly interesting. After testing our new rear constructions in Bahrain with Ferrari we have now also been able to see how well those specifications have worked with the other teams. We are always looking for better grip and consistency and in all we have tested more than ten compounds and constructions. The tests have also highlighted new areas for future investigation."