Formula 1 's tire supplier says, for better or worse, not to expect a repeat this weekend of the tire-related issues that turned the Canadian Grand Prix into a thriller in Valencia.
Early indications of tire performance from Friday free practice suggests that neither the super soft nor the medium tires – the same compounds which struggled so much in Montreal – are suffering degradation problems. Bridgestone's director of motorsport tire development Hirohide Hamashima reckons the super-soft improves over long stints, and thinks Valencia could produce a similar kind of race to Bahrain – where drivers all opted for the same tires and made just one stop near the end of the event.
"The data so far says that even super soft has no degradation, minus degradation, so unfortunately it will be a not so interesting race," Hamashima told AUTOSPORT. "Maybe everybody will use super-soft in Q3, and then during the race there will be not so much drama."
When asked if he thought the event could be a repeat of Bahrain, Hamashima said: "It will be a little bit like that. I am very sorry!"
Hamashima reckons the only chance of drivers trying something new would be if they felt they got a better car balance on the medium tires.
"Some of the cars are quicker with the medium because of the car balance," he said. "A car which is suitable with the medium – when they put the super-soft on the car goes toward oversteer tendency. So it depends on the car."
Although Bridgestone plans to bring super-softs to as many races as it can later in the year, Hamashima ruled out a repeat of the two-step gap between compounds that will be tested at the German Grand Prix.
"At other races that will be very, very difficult because only Hockenheim, of the remaining circuits, could be like that," he said. "In Hungary, if we brought the super-soft and hard, nobody would use the hard. And at Suzuka and Monza, the super-soft is impossible because of heat durability, so that is for safety reasons."