With the racing season done, Bridgestone issued a press release looking back over the 2013 MotoGP season with Bridgestone's Motorsport Manager Hiroshi Yamada. The review covers the high points and the low points of 2013, with Yamada praising the depth of talent in the series and hailing the arrival of Marc Marquez in the premier class. Yamada also briefly reviews the events at Phillip Island, where Bridgestone totally misjudged the state of the newly resurfaced track. There is also some news of the 2014 season, with Bridgestone still evaluating the soft tire options for the new Open class MotoGP machines. The arrival of more powerful bikes such as the Honda RCV1000R and the Yamaha FTR make producing a soft tire for the bikes a more complicated endeavor. The press release appears below:
Hiroshi Yamada looks back over the 2013 MotoGP™ season
After one of the most exciting MotoGP™ campaigns in recent years, Bridgestone Motorsport Manager Hiroshi Yamada looks back on the highlights from this year, and gives a brief glimpse of the world’s largest tyre manufacturer’s approach to the 2014 season.
Yamada-san, how would you summarise the 2013 MotoGP season?
“Overall, I think this season has been fantastic – one of the best ever for the series. All the riders were performing at a very high level and to witness Marc break record after record and Jorge defend his title with so much passion, I think it brought many new fans to MotoGP. Personally, I was very happy to see that despite our focus on producing safer, more user-friendly tyres, eleven Circuit Best Laps and ten Circuit Record Laps were set this year, showing the performance potential of our BATTLAX tyres.
“Also, to start the year with 24 riders – the largest grid since Bridgestone started in MotoGP – shows how the series continues to grow and when I heard that the overall attendance figure this year was the highest ever, it reaffirmed to me that the 2013 season was one of the best ever.”
Luki Botha JeanChristophe Boullion Sebastien Bourdais Thierry Boutsen
