This weekend MotoGP travels to the United States of America again, this time for the Indianapolis Grand Prix on 30 August. Fewer than two months after the race in Laguna Seca, this is only the second MotoGP visit to the Brickyard, so-called because in late 1909 it was rebuilt using 3.2 million bricks.
Bridgestone have chosen to bring asymmetric rear tyres to Indianapolis because of the imbalance between the ten left- and six right-handed corners, most of which are slow and short unlike the generally long and fast lefts. The circuit is abrasive and durability is the key challenge for tyres so the hard and extra hard compound rears have been selected for the job. Braking stability is also essential due to the multitude of first and second gear corners, meaning that the medium and hard compound front Bridgestone slicks are the two available options.
Hiroshi Yamada – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Department “ The American market is important for Bridgestone Corporation so it will be a key weekend for us, and one in which I am confident we can play our part in another close and exciting battle.”
Tohru Ubukata – Manager, Bridgestone Motorcycle Tyre Development Department “Indianapolis is like three tracks in one with the opening section designed for MotoGP bikes, the Formula One infield and the traditional oval course, and there are several surface changes because of this during a lap. The circuit is generally very abrasive although the level of abrasion changes with the surface meaning that our tyres will have to cope with a wide range of track conditions during each lap. “The infield offers a succession of slow corners followed by hard acceleration and the circuit is also quite demanding on the front tyre due to some very hard braking points. We have chosen our asymmetric rear tyres for this race because the circuit uses the left side of the tyres much harder than the right sides – there are more left-handers and generally the fastest corners are lefts.”
