Seeing what makes a top team

December 1st, 1997 was the first day for off-season testing, and the beginning of our collaboration with McLaren. These tests opened Hamashima's eyes. He now realised the differences that made a top F1 team stand out from the rest of the pack.

"The tyres I had prepared for the test were used up way before I expected. The reason was the extra time the McLarens spent on the track."

What he was seeing was a whole new approach. Take engine trouble, for example. The partners we had previously worked with would strip the engine, fix the problem and reassemble it. This meant the car would be off the track for three hours or so. "While they were doing that, all we could do was have a break" recalls Hamashima. McLaren allowed no time for breaks. They would just swap out the whole engine and have the car running again within 30 minutes. That meant they got more hours and more distance from each test. And that's why Hamashima's pile of tyres ran out so fast.

In our second year of Formula One, we were getting a look at the special strengths that made a team a front-running outfit.

Tyre and body designers battle it out

When Red Bull made its unforgettable sweep of the titles in 2010, it did so with aerodynamic cars designed by one of F1's best known engineers, Adrian Newey. Back in 1998, when Newey was designing for McLaren, he and Hamashima got into a heated argument. It could have been foreseen - Newey had designed the team's machine for 1998 based on the Goodyear tyres they had been using up till then, and McLaren's sudden switch to Bridgestone turned his world upside down.

Newey complained: "I designed the car to use the same tyre sizes as 1997. Don't talk to me about changes, bring me the same size tyres."
But Hamashima dug his heels in and refused to comply: "That size soon causes understeer. I can't give you tyres I know are going to do that." He spoke with the authority of a man who had been developing race tyres for many years, and with full confidence in his new tyres.

The only way to resolve this disagreement was to actually try the tyres out and see what speed they gave. The result was clear: while rival cars were plagued with understeering, the McLarens produced a superb performance. Newey had to concede that Bridgestone's thinking was correct after all.

First pole position and first win

In the off-season tests, the McLaren-Bridgestone combination was performing magnificently. But tests can never tell the full story. Hamashima conceded that the McLarens were fast, but privately he kept his fingers crossed and just hoped for a good result.

The 1998 season kicked off with the Australian GP. In the qualifying session, the McLaren cars were noticeably faster than the pack. But could they keep this pace up in the race itself?

"You could see the difference in speed on the monitors, as the McLaren just rocketed out of the final corner. The cars with Goodyear tyres looked completely different. They were quite fast for one lap, but then their speed started falling off. Watching this, I was really pleased I had persevered in my fight with Adrian over the tyre sizes."

The McLaren team finished first and second. And that wasn't all - the third placed car was a full lap behind the leaders. It was a massacre.

This winning streak continued into the second round, where McLaren and Bridgestone completely dominated the Brazilian GP. But in the next race, in Argentina, Goodyear fought back. Following Bridgestone's lead, they too changed the front tyre dimensions, and Michael Schumacher took his Ferrari to victory.

Hamashima remembers his feeling of admiration: "I was astonished when Goodyear produced new tyre sizes in Argentina. I never thought they would be capable of such a rapid response. I suspect that Schumacher had been trying to persuade them ever since seeing us in the winter tests. It was pretty impressive of them to be able to develop new tyres in such a short time."

But the Bridgestone team were determined not to let their rival retire undefeated, and everyone threw themselves into the fight with redoubled energy.

Extreme weather disrupts the Belgian GP

"Oh yes, I remember that race very well…" Hisao Suganuma was the Bridgestone F1 engineer assigned to McLaren from 1998.

He is talking about the Belgian GP, the 13th round of 1998. A race infamous for extreme weather and calamitous incidents. At the start of the race, the area around the grid was wet, but rain wasn't falling. The McLaren engineer discussed the conditions with Mika Hakkinen, who had gained pole position.
"Which shall we fit, intermediate or wet-weather?" Hakkinen said "You should ask Bridgestone" and so they consulted Suganuma. Suganuma hadn't seen the whole of the surface of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, so he said "Let's use the same as the other teams." These were intermediate tyres that used a new compound.
However, the race had just started when Hakkinen went into a spin at the first corner, crashed and had to retire.

"That was a huge shock, and I've never been able to forget it. You always remember your big mistakes and I've hated races where it rains ever since."

It was by no means the last of the problems in this race. A very fast Schumacher was leading and trying to lap Coulthard when the two cars collided. Forced to retire from the race, Schumacher stormed into the McLaren garage shouting that Coulthard had suddenly swerved off line. Suganuma was there and saw it all: "Schumacher looked like a devil, he was so angry. It's not as if Coulthard did it on purpose."
For many reasons, Belgium was a race that will live on in Suganuma's memory.

In a close fight, we take the title

With McLaren as our principal weapon, we carried on through the season, determined to beat Goodyear - whatever it took. For their part, Goodyear were determined to exit Formula One with their laurels intact, and with Michael Schumacher on their side they were making a tough fight of it. With only the Japanese GP remaining, McLaren's Mika Hakkinen was in the lead, but Schumacher was just four points behind. The championship would be decided at Suzuka.

Hamashima: "Our blood was up. This was a completely different feeling to the year before." The whole company felt the same way. Hamashima continued: "Just before the start, then-President Kaizaki said to me 'Hama-chan, whether you get the title or not, we will have spent the same money.' I guess he meant the money would be worth it if we won, and we would have just thrown it away if we lost. Anyway, he was behind us, encouraging us on."

In this most important of races, Bridgestone-McLaren slipped up in the qualifying session and failed to take pole position. "It will be alright as long as we keep up there at the front…" Hamashima was trying to cheer himself on as he watched the drivers assemble on the starting grid. And then the incredible happened - Schumacher stalled his engine. From being in pole position, he was now put at the back of the grid. We all thought that this guaranteed the title for Hakkinen, but then somehow Schumacher quickly clawed his way back into the top ten. Hamashima and all the Bridgestone engineers were beside themselves with anxiety, but Schumacher's amazing comeback ended with a burst right rear tyre that definitively put him out of the race. The blowout happened right in front of where the Bridgestone supporters were sitting.

In our second Formula One year, we had taken the championship title, and managed to defeat rival Goodyear before they retired.

"It felt almost as if we had won too much" recalls Hamashima. But far more than luck was involved. Behind it lay so much effort and so many new experiences, from researching and developing the grooved tyres demanded by this year's regulations to persuading the teams that they could trust our judgement (as in Hamashima's conflict with Newey). We had come a very long way very quickly to take this title.