No “Dramatic Change” With One-Make Bridgestones, Say Drivers

Leading SUPER GT drivers have shared their first impressions of next year’s one-make Bridgestone tires, with Toyota’s reigning champion Sho Tsuboi reporting there is no “dramatic change” from the marque’s current confidential rubber.

Bridgestone, which currently supplies all bar two of the 14 cars in the GT500 class, takes over as the top division’s sole supplier beginning next year.

Two development tests this month at Fuji and Suzuka have taken place involving the respective test cars of each manufacturer, Toyota, Honda and Nissan.

In the most recent test at Suzuka on Monday, which comprised a single three-hour session, Tsuboi shared the No. 90 Toyota GR Supra with Nirei Fukuzumi, the No. 99 Honda HRC Prelude-GT was driven by Tadasuke Makino and Kaku Ohta, and Katsumasa Chiyo and Mitsunori Takaboshi drove the No. 230 Nissan Z NISMO test car.

The quickest time of the day was a 1:46.019 set by the Toyota, less than a second shy Yuto Nomura’s pole time of 1:45.129 set in qualifying on Saturday.

Tsuboi, Makino and Takaboshi were all polled by SUPER GT’s official website and the three drivers all noted that while the new tire has a different feel to the 2026-spec Bridgestones, there are also major similarities.

“We don’t know the construction or compounds being used, so we went into testing with no preconceived notions, like a blind test in a sense,” Tsuboi said.

“When we tried the tires at Fuji, my impression that the difference was quite big in terms with feeling compared to the tires we have used up to now.

“That said, they are still Bridgestones, so although the feeling is totally different, it’s not as if there has been a dramatic change. But in terms of what we should aim for to make the racing as interesting to watch as possible, we have only just started discussing this between the three manufacturers and the tire supplier.

“As a first step, I feel like it’s a very good tire, but now we have to figure out what the goal from here is.”

Honda driver Makino said that his personal preference would be to increase the level of degradation for the sake of the spectacle.

“It was the same at Fuji, but honestly I didn’t feel so much difference with the current tires,” said Makino. “Of course, other manufacturers may have different opinions, but for us there was not much change and we were able to drive with no discomfort.

“Looking at the lap times, the degradation does not appears to be that big. On the other hand, I think it would be ok if they dropped a little more, but then we have to consider sharing the track with GT300s in a race situation, and it would be tough.

“When I did a long run at Fuji, the pace was good, almost a bit too good. I think the tire is something we have to consider to make the racing more interesting.”

While Takaboshi praised the tire for its performance, he pointed out that overly large differences between the three compounds risks creating a situation where teams all converge on the same tire selection next year.

“My impression is the performance hasn’t dropped much compared with the tires we’ve used up to now,” said the Nissan driver.

“I had the same feeling in the previous test at Fuji, but I feel a difference in character compared to the current tires. It will take time to get used to them, and we’ll have to adjust our driving and the car set-up. But even though there is a difference in feeling, it’s amazing that the lap times haven’t changed that much.

“We can feel a big difference in the Hard, Medium and Soft, but if everyone picks the same tire in the races, tire selection becomes unbalanced and there’s no point in having different compounds. The difference can’t be too big or too small, so it’s difficult.”

Also testing on Monday were 14 GT300 cars, of which six were running on 2027-spec Dunlop tires: the Inging Toyota GR86 GT, the LM Corsa Lexus LC500, the Helm Motorsports Nissan GT-R, the LEON Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, the No. 88 JLOC Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 and the Seven x Seven Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo.

Among those cars, the best time recorded was a 1:57.372 by the Inging Toyota, which was also within a second of the pole lap of 1:56.547 recorded by Yusuke Tomibayashi’s Michelin-shod Pacific Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO on Saturday.