Applying motorsport technology to road use a focus for Michelin-FIA partnership

Over the coming two years Michelin will implement a partnership agreement with the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) in order to develop new actions to foster safer, more sustainable mobility. On September 8 the French manufacturer reported that its working relationship with the FIA during this time will be built on three policies, namely the improvement of road safety with a focus on raising awareness amongst young people, developing tyre innovations through motorsport competition that can be utilised to contribute to improved road use, and using competition as a vehicle for developing new solutions for reducing the environmental footprint of mobility in everyday life.

Michelin says its goal together with the FIA is to “pull out all the stops to ensure that competition makes a serious contribution to improving mobility and, from 2011, to implement concrete actions derived from each of the three pillars of this partnership.” This includes, in accordance with new FIA World Rally Championship regulations for the 2012 season, an undertaking to “significantly” increase the lifespan of its tyres, and together with the FIA will also “call upon a network of experts” in order to measure and map the WRC’s environmental footprint. The tyre maker adds that both it and the FIA are “giving great thought” to its plans for next year and 2013; amongst other activities they will devise an environmental strategy for motor sport competition and measures to ensure the rapid transfer of technologies between competition vehicles and ordinary road vehicles.

Michelin has also signed on as an official international partner to the FIA Action for Road Safety campaign, a programme designed to support the United Nations-initiated Decade of Action for Road Safety – a campaign aiming to save five million lives over the next ten years. The establishment of this international-level partnership is described by the tyre maker as an agreement that “fits neatly” within the framework of the extended ROSYPE (Road Safety for Young People in Europe) programme, initiated by Michelin in 2009 in partnership with the European Commission.