There's Always Next Year - Bridgestone's sights are set on long-term success

摘要

While Journalists Alan Henry and Alex Brown may Have described Bridgestone's 2005 Formula 1 season as "a ￡60 million failure," the manufacturer's press department described the company's motprsport year as "another successful season." So were they watching the same races or simply looking at them from different perspectives? Tyres & Accessories asked Bridgestone Motorsport director Hirpshi Yasukawa, and technical manager Hisau Suganuma for their take on this situation and Bridgestone's future in F1. True Bridgestone supplied teams only won one race between them this season - and that was with no competition during the well-documented Michelin US Grand Prix fiasco - but with companies like Bridgestone, success is rarely about short-term results, Take Bridgestone Corporations recent announcement that it will spend as much as ￡1 billion a year on expansion plans between now and 2008 This came hot on the heels of the news that the company would settle its dispute with Ford, an agreement that is set to cost the Japanese manufacturer USD240 million. On the face of the first announcement, you could be forgiven for seeing it as a sign that the company would have to tighten its corporate belt.