The FIA have many environmental campaigns to try and bring about increased awareness for future automotive technologies that will make the industry just that little bit kinder on the world we live in. At the moment, their current campaign is called “Make Cars Green” and is designed to do just that.

For the Japanese Grand Prix, Bridgestone are throwing their support behind the initiative and trying to bring their own take on the “Make Cars Green” idea. Instead of the usual one white stripe on the tyres, to distinguish between the hard and soft compounds, we’ll be seeing some very green stripes on all the tyres.

The idea is for all four grooves on the harder tyre to be painted green, and on the softer tyre, three will be green with the normal white one still white. The tyres were launched in Tokyo ahead of the Grand Prix weekend, with McLaren and Ferrari drivers all there with their cars to give the launch their backing.

The Make Cars Green campaign will be trying to promote fuel efficiency by changing road car driver behaviour, and increasing driver awareness about the impact they are having on the planet. They will also be increasing the push for better and more eco-friendly fuels.

The campaign is a fine idea, and fits in nicely with the FIA’s plans to bring Formula 1 round to a more environmentally aware way of running the sport. I do take issue with the tyres though.

It’s good of Bridgestone to support the initiative, and it’s nice that they want to promote the brand in such a high profile way. I don’t even mind the idea of painting a bit of green on the tyres, even if a lot of the cars do not look particularly good with the luminous colour chosen. Ferrari, in particular, struggle to make their bright red car look any better with the green stripes.

However, that isn’t too much of an issue for just one race. The worst part is that the green stripes are making it impossible to tell the difference between the hard and soft tyres. We have seen Free Practice in Japan already this morning, and it was very difficult to tell who was running on which compound. If they had chosen to simply make the white stripe green, that would be preferable. The way they have done it, all the tyres are stripey and understanding the action is going to be ten times harder.

Bridgestone will use a reflective paint to differentiate its tyre compounds at the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix.

Bridgestone Motorsport will introduce a variation on its tyre marking initiative to cater for the unfamiliar conditions that the Formula One teams will face in Singapore later this month.

The 15th round of the world championship marks a radical departure for Formula One, with the advent of the category’s first-ever night race. Although other series, notably the American-based NASCAR and IndyCar, have long run under floodlights, F1 is taking the plunge for the first time over the weekend of 28 September, and introducing a new element to the mix in the shape of a 5.067km street circuit laid out around the Marina Bay area of the sovereign city state.

The fifth and final street course of the season sees Bridgestone revert to its ’soft’ and ’super soft’ tyres for the mix of slow-, medium- and high-speed corners and top speeds approaching 300kph, but with an added element to, literally, reflect that fact that most of the action will take place after dark.

“The layout looks challenging and we have not seen any races on the circuit, so teams will be relying solely on their simulations before cars take to the track,” Bridgestone’s director of motorsport tyre development Hirohide Hamashima commented, “As with any street course, we expect finding grip to be the focus for many and the grip level to change over the weekend. The circuit layout looks interesting and this will be a very exciting, unique race track.”

The circuit will be artificially lit but, to help observers identify which tyres drivers are running on at any given time, Bridgestone has applied extra reflective markings to some of the 2200 tyres it will take to Singapore to differentiate the two compounds of dry tyre and the two types of wets, with the ’super soft’ dry and ‘extreme’ wet being marked.

The Bridgestone tyre company will celebrate 200 Formula One races this weekend at Valencia.

Bridgestone are getting ready for what will be their 200th Formula One grand prix this weekend as they celebrate more than ten years of competition in the world’s premier motorsport series.

The Japanese tyre manufacturer arrived in F1 in 1997 to rival stalwart tyre suppliers Goodyear until they left at the end of the 1998 season. They experienced further competition from Michelin from 2001, but while they supplied seven of the ten teams in 2006, they quit at the end of that season.

As such, Bridgestone won the contract to be the control tyre supplier to F1, ensuring that they will head into their 200th race this weekend at the European Grand Prix in Valencia guaranteed of a victory.

For the chairman of Bridgestone, Shoshi Arakawa, it is a major landmark for a company that has been in operation since 1931.

“Bridgestone’s participation in 200 Formula One races shows the level of commitment we have given to the sport and we are delighted to be working with all of the teams and so many major motor manufacturers in our current position as official tyre supplier. Participating in a major sport brings us many benefits and, in return, we hope we have helped the sport grow just as we have grown through being part of Formula One.”

Since entering F1, Bridgestone has won 125 grands prix, the first coming at the start of the 1998 season when Mike Hakkinen claimed victory in the Australian Grand Prix season-opener.

They also scored points in their first ever race in 1997, courtesy of Olivier Panis in the Prost team, while the Frenchman and Damon Hill in the Arrows very nearly scored shock victories at Canada and Hungary respectively that year.

Going on to win eight driver and constructors’ titles, those statistics justify their tough decision to compete in F1, according to motorsport director Hiroshi Yasukawa.

“Bridgestone is very happy to be celebrating its 200th grand prix since 1997,” he said, “Entering Formula One was a big step for us twelve seasons ago, but one which was very valuable as our brand awareness has increased significantly since then.