Michelin to Field Longer Lasting Tyres at Le Mans

Michelin is hoping to walk away with its 13th consecutive win at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. To achieve this, the tyre maker says its engineers, chemists, developers and technicians have prepared a new line-up of even more durable tyres. Working with its partners, Michelin has focused on increasing tyre life without sacrificing performance in other areas. This year the company’s stated goal at the 24 hour race is to quadruple the length of each stint for prototypes and to double them for GT cars.

The new tyre development process began nearly one year ago. To increase longevity, Michelin provided its partners in the LMP1 category with a very broad selection of slick tyres so that each team could choose its own tyre line-up depending on car technical features and individual driving styles. Selections were made following a large number of trial sessions and then validated by many of the teams at the 1000 km Spa held at the Spa-Francorchamps track in early May. Therefore, for the first time ever, Audi, Peugeot, Aston Martin and Michelin’s other LMP1 partners will not be using the same slicks at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

“Our partners [previously] wanted to compete with the same tyres,” commented Serge Grisin, manager of Michelin Competition’s four-wheel programme. “Today, however, Audi and Peugeot have each perfected their own cars and to increase tyre life without adversely affecting track performance, consistency and safety, they’ve chosen different tyres.”

Michelin developed around 60 different options – referred to as briques – that were tested independently during trials in Misano in November 2009. The best among them were combined into around ten tyre solutions that were then tested by Michelin’s partner teams. After extensive testing, each partner chose its own slick tyre line-ups for 2010 depending on car characteristics (balance, weight distribution, set-up, aerodynamic features), individual driving style and responsiveness (incisive or progressive). “The differences between the tyres are sometimes minor and may even be purely subjective,” added Grisin.
“For example, our LMP1 partners like Aston Martin and Rebellion, who use the same Lola B10/60 chassis, have opted for different tyre line-ups”.

A further benefit of these tyres, says Michelin, is that because they are longer lasting fewer will need to be manufactured and transported to the racetrack – thereby helping to protect the environment.