Bridgestone’s announcement as tire supplier is expected in the coming days. w
Photo: Parabólica / Paulo Abreu
During a press conference held this Friday in São Paulo, at the opening of the 12th season of Formula E, Hankook officially announced that it would leave the category next season. The tire supplier presented this press release while reinforcing its confidence in a technically stable and balanced championship.
Manfred Sandbichler, the brand’s motorsport director, stressed that the virtually identical scenario to last year, with the same cars, teams, tires and track configuration, should provide an “extremely exciting” race in São Paulo. He also highlighted that Formula E is a platform for sustainable innovation, particularly due to the limited use of only two sets of tires per stage, which he said is driving the development of the iON range, aimed at electric vehicles.
Engineer Thomas Baltes added that, even with different powertrains between teams, there is no significant impact on tire wear or temperature, ensuring consistent performance across the grid.
Shortly after the press conference, information that had not yet been publicly announced was discovered: Bridgestone was working behind the scenes to take on the role of official supplier of the category. An official announcement from Formula E is expected in the coming days, particularly at a time when the sport is discussing increasingly stringent sustainability targets, including the global trend to further reduce the number of tires used per season.
Parabólica continues to investigate the details of the future supplier and the date of the official announcement.