Hirohide Hamashima

Hirohide Hamashima
Hamashima at the 2008 Japanese Grand Prix.
Born1952
Tokyo, Japan
NationalityJapanese
TitleHead of the Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team Tyre Development

Hirohide Hamashima (浜島 裕英, Hirohide Hamashima, born 1952 in Tokyo), also known as Hammy, is the former director of the Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team Tyre Development. He previously worked for Bridgestone as the director of its Motorsport Tyre Development until 2011.

Career

Bridgestone

After graduating from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology in a master's course in macromolecular chemistry, Hamashima joined a Japanese tire company, Bridgestone, in 1977.

He has consistently worked on the development of tires for motor sports since 1981. He worked in many racing categories, such as Formula Two, DTM, the Indianapolis 500, Formula One and MotoGP. When the company started to supply tire to Formula One in 1997, Hamashima took leading role to develop racing tire.

During the Formula One era, he often appeared on the Fuji TV's F1 program even in Grands Prix weekends and commented as a tire engineer, about the compatibility of the circuit and the tire, and other related matters. Thus, he became well known among Formula One fans in Japan.

Scuderia Ferrari

On 11 January 2012, Scuderia Ferrari announced that Hamashima moved to the team and took a role in its technical department to improve the interaction of the Ferrari car and its tires.[1] Hamashima left Ferrari at the end of 2014.[2]

Later efforts

On 5 March 2015, MediaDo Kageyama Racing (owned by Masahiko Kageyama, who finished in 3rd place at the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans with Kazuyoshi Hoshino and Aguri Suzuki) announced that Hamashima had become a special advisor to the team.

In January 2016, he joined CERUMO taking part in Super Formula and Super GT, and he became the team principal.

References

  1. ^ "Ferrari moves to cure tyre issues by signing former Bridgestone F1 chief Hamashima". Autosport. 11 January 2012. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  2. ^ "Hamashima latest engineer to leave Ferrari". ESPN. 17 December 2014. Retrieved 29 April 2015.

Books

  • Hirohide Hamashima (2005). The World's Fastest Formula One tyre–The battle of a Bridgestone engineer (世界最速のF1タイヤ―ブリヂストン・エンジニアの闘い, Sekai-saisoku no F1 tyre – Bridgestone Engineer no tatakai) (in Japanese). Shinchosha. ISBN 4-10-610110-6.
  • Hirohide Hamashima (2011). The equation of strategy in Formula One–The World title winning Bridgestone's F1 tyre (Ｆ１　戦略の方程式 世界を制したブリヂストンのＦ１タイヤ, F1 Senryaku no Hoteishiki Sekai o seishita Bridgestone no F1 tyre) (in Japanese). Kadokawa Shoten. ISBN 978-4-04-710294-1.