Ferrari have confirmed the signing of Bridgestone's former head of Formula One tyre development Hirohide Hamashima, a man that the Italian team are hoping will help to end their numerous tyre woes from the 2011 season.
Ferrari struggled throughout 2011 with Pirelli's harder tyres, losing a number of potentially strong results after falling back on the hard or medium tyres.
The issue was blamed on their 2011 car simply failing to deliver enough heat into the harder tyres, giving the drivers chronic grip issues when they made the mandatory switch.
Hamashima worked as the head of Bridgestone's development programme from their entry into F1 in 1997 all the way through to their withdrawal at the end of 2010.
And it will be his job to help Ferrari solve their tyre issues, with the Japanese tyre chief set to work under technical boss Pat Fry.
Ferrari confirmed the signing at the almost-exciting Wroom event at the Madonna di Campiglio ski resort on Wednesday.
"He will give his contribution to the development of the car and the issue of tyres," team boss Stefano Domenicali explained.
He added: "This [tyre problem] was an issue where last year we suffered in some conditions.
"[These problems meant that] last season we weren't able to take advantage of all the types of tyres available to us."
Hamashima's signing is the latest big name move for Ferrari, who are seeking to bounce back after their disappointing 2011 campaign, where the team scored just a single win.
Earlier in the week, the Autosprint publication reported the signing of technical advisor Steve Clark from the Mercedes GP team.
Clark is set to take a similar role to Chris Dyer, who was axed at the start of 2011, overseeing the team's race engineers.
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