Bridgestone - ending ties with F1.

By Ian Parkes, Press Association Sport

Bridgestone Motorsport have announced they are pulling out of Formula One at the end of next season.

The Japanese company was appointed official tyre supplier ahead of the 2008 season on a three-year contract.

Despite being in F1 since 1997, Bridgestone have decided not to renew the deal, citing the need to redirect their resources.

Hiroshi Yasukawa, director of Bridgestone Motorsport, said: "The decision made by the board of directors comes after considerable and lengthy evaluations.

"While we understand and respect the reasons for this decision, it has nevertheless come as a great disappointment.

"Bridgestone's relationship with Formula One stretches beyond being a tyre supplier.

"Formula One has been of strategic importance to Bridgestone in developing its technologies, raising the company's brand awareness and providing its strategic business units around the globe with promotional and marketing tools that are intrinsically linked to our company's core products.

"It remains only to reiterate that Bridgestone continues to be wholly committed to the provision of safe tyres of the highest quality to Formula One in 2010 and to the running of its tyre servicing operation at the highest level."