The championship that got underway in Bahrain back in March is now heading towards its climax, with just two races remaining. The story of the year so far is that after a very strong start from their rivals, Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro remorselessly closed down the points gap until, going into the Japanese Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso are level pegging and just one point separates the two teams in the Constructors' classification.

With Ferrari running Bridgestone tyres and the rival team using the other brand, it has been a recurring theme this year that tyre performance is perhaps the single most critical factor in deciding the outcome of the races, as was perfectly illustrated just a few days ago when Schumacher won in Shanghai. So there is plenty of incentive for Bridgestone to do the best they can this weekend, especially as Suzuka is the home race for the Japanese tyre company. "Our technical side and all our teams, which of course includes Ferrari in its fight for the championship titles, will be giving our best and I do believe we can achieve our objectives," says Bridgestone's Sporting Director, Hiroshi Yasukawa. "Our partnership with Ferrari has been going on for seven years now. When we started back in 1999 our two companies did not know one another at all, but after working so closely together for so many years, we have reached a position of trust and respect between the two companies. It is one of the strengths in our partnership. Right from the beginning, our engineers spent a lot of time at Maranello and the good results achieved owe a great deal to the fact we work so closely together right from the design stage of the car and tyre."

Apart from the need to win this weekend's race to carry a points advantage going onto the final round in Brazil, this Sunday sees Bridgestone's last chance, at least for a while, of winning its home grand prix by beating a rival tyre manufacturer, because next year, the company will have a tyre supply monopoly in Formula 1, just as it did at the start of the century.

"Even with a monopoly situation, there should be no let up in tyre development going into next year," says Yasukawa. "Currently we support just five teams and this will go up to eleven teams in 2007. I want all eleven of them to be satisfied with the product and service we provide. I don't think our current teams will have any advantage in real terms. If there is any sort of difference it may be that they will already have a good understanding of our philosophy and the way we work, rather than any technical advantage.
 

"Anyway, for next year, we will be producing a completely new tyre type with a new construction for the grands prix and Bridgestone has a very good reputation for treating everyone equally." In fact, although Bridgestone may be supplying some F1 teams for the first time in 2007, other areas in the company already have links with the majority of motor manufacturers as, apart from Ferrari, the Japanese tyre producer also supplies F1 contenders, BMW, Toyota, Honda and even Renault with tyres for their road cars.

So, this is the last time that Bridgestone fights another tyre supplier in the Japanese Grand Prix, but more significantly it is the last time that Michael Schumacher will be racing here. "Our relationship with Michael Schumacher goes back a very long time, right to the time he was a young boy racing in karts," recalls Yasukawa. "My strongest memories of him date from when he drove in the Macau Formula 3 race and in the Japanese Formula 3 series. In DTM he was working with Mercedes and Norbert Haug asked me if I could help find Michael a Formula 3000 seat in Japan. He was driving a Ralt car, which was maybe less popular than the March at the time, but he still finished second. It was at this point that he was picked up by Eddie Jordan for his first ever Formula 1 drive. Michael has contributed a lot to our tyre programme: he has a lot of ideas and knowledge and is passionate about tyre development. He will be hard to replace." Bridgestone will make the most of the fact that Michael is in Japan by staging a farewell gesture in Tokyo in the shape of a traditional Japanese flower blessing ceremony.

Farewell to their rival, farewell to their most successful driver and one more farewell to Suzuka itself as next year's Japanese race is moved to Fuji. "Suzuka is a great circuit and personally I have been going there since 1962," comments Hiroshi Yasukawa. "It is a fantastic venue, but Fuji is also a good track and it could provide an interesting challenge for us and the teams. The Japanese event is of course very important for us, with many of our staff attending the weekend in Suzuka to support us. Our company now employs over 100,000 people and a large number of them are very keen on our Formula 1 programme and are real F1 fans."