Following a successful debut of a new MotoGP slick tyre marking system in 2014, Bridgestone has introduced new colours to its tyre line-up in 2015 to reflect new tyre developments being made available to riders this year.
The revision to the tyre marking system has been the result of more options of slick tyre being offered by Bridgestone this season, as the Official Tyre Supplier to MotoGP continues to pursue development of race tyres that offer enhanced safety, durability and performance.
Alongside the four coloured markings used last year; green (extra-soft), white (soft), black (medium) and red (hard), two new slick tyre colours are added to this year’s classification scheme. A new extra-hard compound rear slick will make its debut at the Argentina round of the championship due to the severe nature of the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit, and this new development will be distinguished by a yellow stripe.
Bridgestone has continued development of its asymmetric front slick that was introduced in the closing stages of the 2014 season, and this year will offer this option at more circuits in various compound combinations. As only a maximum of one type of asymmetric front slick will be offered at a given round, these will be marked with a light blue stripe to help distinguish this option against the symmetric front slicks on offer.
The complete list of coloured slick tyre markings for the 2015 MotoGP season is:
| Same as 2014 |
| Additional colours for 2015 |
As per last season, in 2015 two options of wet tyre will be offered at each round, and will adopt a marking system where the plain, black tyre denotes the harder option, and a white stripe will mark the softer option.
Bridgestone’s manager of Motorsport Department, Hiroshi Yamada says: “The coloured tyre marking scheme we implemented last year was designed to make it easier for fans to see which tyre options we deliver at each race, and we’ve listened to the feedback from both MotoGP fans and media around the world to improve this system for this year. This revised tyre marking system not only reflects Bridgestone’s commitment to continue developing new tyres through the 2015 MotoGP season by offering more options to riders, but also helps increase the appeal of the sport by helping fans more clearly understand the importance of tyre strategy during the race weekend.”
The extra hard tire is to be introduced in Argentina for the first time, where the circuit proved to be tough on tires. It is expected to favour the Honda factory machines – the RC213Vs of Marc Márquez, Dani Pedrosa, Cal Crutchlow and Scott Redding, who will benefit most from the harder compound, as their bikes are the only machines which have been able to make the normal hard rear tire work.