“Old-style” Spa circuit a driver’s track – Pirelli

Previewing the weekend’s Formula One action, Pirelli has called Belgium’s Spa Francorchamps circuit “an epic track… a true driver’s track. With the longest lap of the season, the track poses plenty of questions for the tyres too: the Eau Rouge corner puts the equivalent of 1,000 kilograms on the front-left tyre and 950 kilograms on the rear tyre; Pouhon is a demanding downhill left-hand corner with 4G of sideways acceleration throughout the bend; the third sector demands full speed for a long period of time, leaving the tyres to cope with a vertical load of 1,100kg from downforce; and during the final part of the lap, the drivers brake hard for the Bus Stop chicane.

Pirelli’s test driver Lucas di Grassi gave Spa the tag of an “old-style circuit”. Speaking of his “huge pleasure” in driving the circuit, di Grassi analyses the options open to teams: “In terms of set-up it’s always a compromise, as you need plenty of straight-line speed but also lots of downforce for all the quick corners.

“There are several points where you can overtake – after Eau Rouge is a good place, for example – and this is always a circuit where it pays to be brave. For the tyres, it’s definitely a challenging race as a huge amount of energy goes through them because of the high speeds and big aerodynamic loads. The other big factor is the weather: from my experience here in the past I would definitely expect to see the intermediate and the rain tyres being used at some point during the weekend. Even when it is dry on one part of the track, it can be raining at another place.”
 
Ecological disposal

When Tyres & Accessories spoke with Pirelli’s Motorsport director Paul Hembery before the start of the manufacturer’s first F1 season as sole supplier, he suggested that while Pirelli is certainly engaged in tackling ecological issues as a company, lectures on environmentalism were not part of a Formula One tyre supplier’s remit. However Pirelli’s “green technology” programme, meaning its commitment to environmentally sensitive working practices, has manifested within the sport as part of the disposal operation of its used F1 products.

All Pirelli’s tyres are transported back to Didcot after each Grand Prix, where they are finely shredded, along with other road car tyres, including those used in the company’s other motorsport activities. The shredded tyres form small pellets, which are then burnt at extremely high temperatures as fuel for cement factories. The extremely high temperatures, in excess of 1400 degrees centigrade, means that no noxious fumes are released and the only particles that remain are in the form of very fine, non-toxic, ash.
 
Pirelli has been using this technology since 2002 in Italy, and also used it throughout its return to single-seater competition last year with the GP2 season. In total, Pirelli will dispose of up to 80,000 competition tyres this year using this method – which has been adopted as well in other countries throughout the world.
 
Hembery commented: “The environment has always been extremely high on our agenda at Pirelli. The way that we dispose of the tyres is firm evidence of this: in fact, the road surfaces that spectators drive on to get to Grands Prix in future could well be made up of some of our recycled tyres.”