Randy de Puniet at Laguna Seca was just the latest rider to succumb to the cold tire syndrome that has been afflicting the grid over the start of the season (actually it’s been going for a lot longer) and Bridgestone has responded to the fact that the riders have been hitting the tarmac and tumbling into the kitty litter with all the hurting consequences, just a little too often.
The Japanese tire manufacturer will introduce this weekend at Brno and for the first time at the Czech circuit an asymmetric rear tire, and the riders will finally have three different compounds to select from for their front tire allocation with an additional even softer compound option also being made available to increase safety, but only in case of particularly low track temperatures, which will be decided solely by Bridgestone.
An additional change has also been made to rear tyre regulations, here too the riders will have a little more choice, instead of the usual five hard and five soft, they can now decide which combo to use after FP2, choosing a maximum of six of one compound option and four of the other.
We just have to wait for tomorrow morning’s first free practice to see if anyone crashes on their first laps out, but the teams may have to break out the rain tires at some point, because forecasts are predicting cloudy skies and scattered rain showers.