Bridgestone takes guayule tyres racing

Today is a big day for the Bridgestone team tasked with developing tyres containing natural rubber derived from the guayule desert shrub. An all-new Firestone race tyre with a sidewall made with this rubber makes its competition debut at this weekend’s IndyCar Series racing in Nashville, USA.

“The introduction of guayule natural rubber to America’s preeminent open-wheel racing series speaks to the confidence we have in the technology and its potential as a scalable, sustainable and domestic source of natural rubber—a vital raw material,” says Nizar Trigui, chief technology officer and group president, Solutions Businesses, Bridgestone Americas, Inc. “This milestone represents our commitment to realising a more sustainable future for tyres, racing and mobility.”

From farm to track

Bridgestone is using racing as a proving ground to demonstrate the performance of this rubber material, which it has been heavily researching for more than a decade. Guayule is grown and processed at the company’s R&D facilities in Arizona and made into the Firestone Firehawk alternate race tyres at its race tyre production facility in Akron, Ohio.

Firehawk race tyres with sidewalls made using guayule-derived natural rubber were introduced at the Indy 500 Pit Stop Challenge in May 2022 as a first look before their competitive debut. Bridgestone plans to incorporate guayule natural rubber into more of its race tyres in 2023.

From shrub to racetrack – These Firestone Firehawk tyres feature sidewalls containing guayule rubber (Photo: Bridgestone Americas)

Benefits of guayule

Guayule is a heat tolerant, woody shrub that thrives in America’s desert southwest and can be farmed with existing row-crop equipment. Bridgestone Americas sees a potential in guayule to have a positive economic effect while helping to reduce the energy and other environmental impacts associated with transporting rubber sourced overseas.

Bridgestone launched its guayule research initiative in 2012 when it broke ground on a guayule processing and research centre in Mesa, Arizona. In addition to this facility, today the company operates a 287-acre (116-hectare) guayule farm in Eloy, Arizona. To date, Bridgestone has invested more than US$100 million in its efforts to commercialise guayule, achieving major milestones such as producing the first tyre containing guayule-derived natural rubber in 2015 and continued expansion of its guayule molecular breeding programme. Bridgestone aims to commercialise use of guayule rubber in tyres by 2030.

Guayule is part of the Bridgestone plan to achieve carbon neutrality and make tyres from 100 per cent renewable materials by 2050. The company is actively researching a range of solutions to support the recycling of materials from end-of-life tyres and promote the replacement of non-renewable materials such as oil, silica and virgin carbon black in new tyres.