"If we halve the downforce, the mechanical grip will no longer be sufficient, so we want to compensate for this by bringing back slick tyres." This is what the FIA proposed to Bridgestone for 2009. If we used slick tyres the same size as the grooved ones, the front tyres would be too strong and wear on the rear would be excessive, so Bridgestone asked all the teams to use smaller sized front tyres. However, some of the teams had already progressed too far with their new car development, so in the end we provided four tyre specs. The names were unchanged from the previous year – hard, medium, soft and super soft – but their performance was different. The two softer specs were easier to use at lower temperatures but performance degraded more rapidly. The harder compounds worked better at higher temperatures and tended to maintain their grip better. Hamashima sums up the 2009 season: "By taking these two approaches, we were able to obtain a much broader understanding of the relation of the tyres and compounds to the different track surfaces." This was the technical challenge we found ourselves facing as sole supplier.