Bridgestone boss backs two days Grand Prix

(24-Jul-98) - Bridgestone's technical director Hirohide Hamashima has
backed the move to two day Grands Prix -- if Formula One bosses decide it
is the only way for the calendar to expand.

FIA president Max Mosley is believed to want as many as 20 Grands Prix per
year and has proposed that such a move would come with events reduced to
just two days.

But some critics of the idea have said it would be unsafe because it would
not allow enough crucial setting up time and testing on each track.

But Hamashima has dismissed those suggestions. "It would be very good,
and not just because it would give us an extra day's holiday," he
said.

"I don't think there would be a problem with it at all. Some are
saying that having only two days is dangerous, but we are involved in
Japanese F3000 which also has two days and there are no difficulties there.

"It would also be nice to visit a few new tracks. It would be
interesting and good for the company because we would get a more broad
experience of tracks. It would be helpful in developing tyres for the
road."

Hamashima also revealed that his company have not spoken to any of the
current Goodyear-supplied teams about their plans for next season when the
American company pulls out at the end of this year.

"We are too busy to even think about 1999," he said. "Our
aim at the moment is to win this year's championship."

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