Bridgestone has been in the paddock at the two most recent rounds of the F1 season, holding behind-the-scenes talks about a bid to replace Pirelli as the series’ sole tire supplier from 2029, according to RacingNews365.
The Dutch outlet reports that paddock sources expect the Japanese company’s next proposal to be stronger than the one it submitted in the 2023 tender, when Pirelli was retained as F1’s exclusive supplier.
Pirelli’s hold on the contract was reinforced earlier this year. On June 11, 2026, the FIA confirmed that it had activated the one-year extension built into Pirelli’s 2023 deal, keeping the Milan-based company as the exclusive supplier for F1, F2 and F3 through the end of the 2028 season.
That is as far ahead as the current paperwork reaches.
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“We are pleased to extend our presence in Formula 1 by a further year, until 2028, thanks to the agreement reached with the FIA,” Pirelli executive vice chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera said in the FIA’s statement.
Everything from 2029 onwards goes back to the tender process.
Bridgestone’s quiet reset in 2025
Bridgestone has not been publicly campaigning. It has been restructuring. On January 31, 2025 the company announced a new motorsports management structure, and from March 1, 2025 it installed Hiroshi Imai as the head of the new organization.
Imai joined McLaren Racing in 2009 and worked his way up through principal engineer, chief race engineer and ultimately director of race engineering before returning to Japan after the 2024 season. He is the senior figure now steering Bridgestone’s F1 push, and RacingNews365 reports that he was part of the high-level delegations that attended the Singapore and United States Grand Prix weekends to assess the ground.
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A tender Bridgestone has already lost once
Bridgestone has been in this position before. It bid for the 2025 to 2027 contract and lost to Pirelli in 2023, with F1 citing Pirelli’s suitability for the regulatory shift to lighter 18-inch tires that run without heating blankets.
After that decision, Bridgestone’s then global CEO Shuichi Ishibashi told Autosport that the bid had featured the company’s Enliten road-tire technology, which Bridgestone says produces tires around 20 percent lighter than their previous equivalent and whose components are 63 percent recycled.
Ishibashi said the proposal had drawn “positive recognition from FIA and FOG,” and signaled that a return bid remained possible once Pirelli’s deal ran out. The 2028 deadline the FIA locked in during June 2026 is the trigger for that next tender.
Pirelli, Hankook and Michelin all in the frame
Bridgestone would not have a clear run. RacingNews365 reports that Pirelli is expected to bid again, Hankook’s interest in supplying F1 has been known in the paddock for some time, and Michelin has also been linked with a possible submission.
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No tender has been formally opened by the FIA. The next contract will cover everything from 2029 onwards, and until that process starts, Pirelli remains the only confirmed supplier of F1 tires for the 2027 and 2028 seasons.
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