In a continuous effort to make it easier for fans to identify the tyre type, Bridgestone have announced new making schemes in addition to the existing ones. The two new colour markings will be Yellow for extra hard compound (rear only) and light Blue for asymmetric tyres (front). This now adds to a total of six types of slick tyre option available to the rider. In addition to this there two wet tyre option per round. These wet tyres will be marked white for the softer option and plain black for the harder option. The new extra hard compound (Yellow marking) will first be used at the Argentina round. The highly abrasive track conditions there require a stronger/harder compound tyre. The controversial asymmetric tyre for the front marked in light blue has seen further development and will hopefully be more competent this time. Last time around we saw the lesser used side loose temperature quickly causing many riders to crash out, most unfortunate of whom was Cal Crutchlow who missed a sure podium spot on the second last spot. This will be the last year of Bridgestone at MotoGP with Michelin taking over from next year and it sure is good to see the company still innovating and making changes.
Quick reference to all the MotoGP tyre marking and compounds
- Extra-soft compound: Green
- Soft compound: White
- Medium compound: Black (no stripe)
- Hard compound: Red
- Extra-hard compound (rear only): Yellow
- Asymmetric front slick: Light blue
- Wet tyres (hard): Black (no stripe)
- Wet tyres (soft): White
