Kumho Tires Keen on Formula 1

Kumho Tire Corp has officially decided to take on the challenge of Formula 1, said company president, Sae-Chul Oh, during a Formula 3 Euro Series event. Korea’s largest tyre manufacturer produces around 36 million tyres a year and is aiming to be involved in motorsport’s premiere league from 2007 onwards, when new tyre contracts are negotiatied.

From its earliest days in motorsports, as a tyre supplier at the UK MG Owner’s Club, Kumho has enlarged its motorsport commitment to include several other series. The company is now the exclusive supplier of prestigious Formula 3 Euro Series, which is generally regarded as a stepping-stone to Formula 1. Kumho delivers its ECSTA racing tyre to the teams.

The Korean manufacturer claims to be prepared to face the enormous costs and development pressure that goes along with a commitment to Formula 1. Yet another tyre manufacturer in the Formula 1 could “bestow new impulses on the nowadays monotonous motorsport event”, writes Kumho Tires in a press release. In order to prove the company’s technological capabilities and its, as Kumho says, outstanding product quality, the tyre manufacturer has already begun developing the “latest technologies and enormous investments” that Formula 1 requires. Between now and 2007 Kumho Tire will invest £14 million into developing a Formula 1 tyre.