Yokohama supplying Formula 4

Building on a pre-existing relationship with series organiser Motorsport Vision Racing (MSVR), tyre manufacturer Yokohama has announced a deal that sees it become the first tyre supplier to the new Formula 4 series. Both car and tyres were unveiled in parallel with the official announcement of the news at this year's Autosport Show.

The Formula 4 series represents a new concept in racing. Seen as the first step in motosport, Formula 4 seeks to bridge the gap between karting and racing with a a cost effective entry level series. It also offers a route into motorsport for those have caught the racing bug through involvement with low-level events such as track days. 

Over the years, finding a route into motorsport has been infamously difficult with the cost alone often making it prohibitively expensive. Now, however, Formula 4 is pitching itself as the aspiration series with what it takes to open up racing to newcomers tap the latent talent pool in the UK. 

All this, organisers MSVR says, at with such modenr technology that privateers can compete on a level playing field with professional teams. To this end the series is based on a brand new car that has been specifically designed for the series so it is inexpensive to run, fix and maintain. It has a also been specified carefully for reliability purposes. And it is here, say MSVR representatives, that tyres play a particularly key role ensuring high level of performance that maintain with low levels of drop off throughout the life of the product.

“Yokohama are good, cost effective tyres. The high performance they offer is critical along with stability,” said MSVR’s Giles Butterworth, explaining this all comes with backup and service support that also helped secure the deal.

So far the series is said to have received an excellence response with the initial production run of 20 cars already sold. This popularity led to the expansion of the manufacturing run to 24 cars. The four further vehicle have also now been sold.