Official wants Bridgestone to stay in F1

An official of the Japanese tyre supplier on Tuesday said he would like to see Bridgestone stay in formula one.

Hiroshi Yamada is the development boss for Bridgestone’s MotoGP programme.

He told Motosprint that while the marque is pulling out of F1, Bridgestone will probably stay in MotoGP beyond the end of its current contract at the end of 2011.

"Obviously we’d have more money to spend (on MotoGP), because the F1 budget is very high, but in my opinion we should stay in F1 too, because our image would lose a lot otherwise," said Yamada.

Michelin is touted to re-enter F1 in Bridgestone’s wake next year, but the French marque wants at least one other supplier to compete with, as well as a move from 13-inch to 18-inch wheel rims in 2011.

McLaren’s engineering director Paddy Lowe confirmed this week that the teams would back Michelin’s push for low-profile tyres.

"Yes. I think all the teams have agreed that if Michelin would supply that as a condition then we would support that," he said.