Manufacturers in motorsport

Motorsport is a key tool in marketing tyres and has been since the first tyres were produced. Harvey Firestone used to say “Race them on Sunday, sell them on Monday”. That holds as true today as it did back then. However, the market is much more complex now with a wider variety of motorsports and a wider variety of manufacturers. Not only that but the technology of the vehicles and the tyres has developed at a pace that has created specialist divisions in manufacture solely to deal with developing motorsport tyres.

T&A looks at the leading players in the market in the UK and uncovers the thinking behind their involvement in motorsport, why they do it, how they do it and indeed what they hope to gain from motorsport in the long run. From a simple publicity advantage for some, through to a full blown engineering partnership with vehicle manufacturers for others.