FIA World Endurance Championship Porsche teams Dempsey-Proton and Gulf Racing will run on Dunlop tyres in their global campaigns following comparative testing. Both teams have experience of working with Dunlop in the European Le Mans Series (ELMS), where the brand is the sole tyre supplier to the LMGTE class. Both teams will race in the LMGTE AM class of WEC, including the Le Mans 24 hour race.
The Aston Martin Valkyrie hypercar will roll on Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres in 265/35ZR20 front and 325/30ZR21 rear sizes. Michelin said the tyre “blurs the line between motorsport and road tyres”, as the latest generation of road-legal track tyres designed for UHP cars that are used on road and track. The Valkyrie’s high-power, high-downforce, low-weight philosophy represents Aston Martin’s attempt to redefine the limits of road car performance, and will put “unprecedented demands on its tyres”.
Aston Martin Racing’s two titles at the 6 Hours of Bahrain FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season finale came in its first season working with Dunlop. In total Dunlop-shod vehicles won five times this year in the WEC. Following prior successes in the prototype category, Dunlop chose to take on an FIA World Endurance GTE Partnership this year with the Aston team, and will seek to provide more championship standard tyres through a testing programme started in September. Xavier Fraipont, managing director, Dunlop Motorsport and motorcycle EMEA, said the tyre manufacturer is “developing new technologies for both LMP and GT with an intensive schedule of evaluation until the start of the 2017 ELMS, VLN and WEC seasons.” Tyres & Accessories caught up with Fraipont after the end of the 2016 WEC season, beginning the conversation by asking how Dunlop was able to achieve so much in endurance racing this year.
Aston Martin Racing has claimed two titles at the 6 Hours of Bahrain FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season finale in its first season working with Dunlop. Nicki Thiim and Marco Sørensen won the FIA World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers, while the team was victorious in the FIA World Endurance Trophy for GTE Pro Teams.
After choosing to kit out its GTE factory team cars on Dunlop rubber for 2016, Aston Martin Racing reports that its #98 GTE AM entry will revert to Michelin tyres for the rest of the current FIA World Endurance Championship season. It appears the Vantage GTE driven by Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda will be fitted with Michelins for the remaining races as the drivers have struggled with the Dunlop tyres, which like all tyres used in GTE AM feature 2015-specification compounds. Aston Martin Racing shares that Dalla Lana, together with the team, requested the change.
Pirelli has unveiled the line-up for this year’s Pirelli Prestige & Performance Competition. The event, held at Blenheim Palace on 3 September, includes some of the greatest supercars of the last forty years. Aston Martin, Ferrari, Jaguar, McLaren, Mercedes-Benz, and Pagani will feature among 25 auto brands in eight different classes, while Lamborghini and Porsche have special celebration classes.
Phil Keen and Jon Minshaw claimed a double British GT win in their Lamborghini Huracan GT3 in the penultimate event of the Pirelli-equipped series at Snetterton. The results move Barwell Motorsport drivers Keen and Minshaw to the top of the drivers’ standings in the GT3 class with just one race remaining at Donington Park on September 10-11. The victory in race one came despite a clash with the BMW Z4 GT3 of Joe Osborne that sent the Lamborghini into a spin.
The fourth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship takes place at the Nürburgring circuit on 24 July. The six hour race follows the double-points Le Mans 24 Hours where Dunlop saw considerable success in the LMP2 class. The tyre supplier adds that it gained valuable experience with partner teams in LMP1 and LMGTE.
Aston Martin is going ahead with previously announced plans for a new £200 million manufacturing plant in St Athan, Wales despite the UK voting to leave the European Union. It seems that company remains optimistic about its plans at least partly because a weaker pound makes the carmaker’s exports more attractive.
Aston Martin president and CEO Dr Andy Palmer said in a statement that the UK’s Brexit vote won’t change the company’s expansion plans.
Dunlop continued its success in the LMP2 category at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with the top seven finishers in the class using its tyres. The adaptability of Dunlop’s tyres was key to this success, as these top seven finishers included chassis from six manufacturers. Signatech Alpine took the victory, having completed 357 laps. The Dunlop tyre range is all-new for 2016 and the LMP2 tyres demonstrated the progress the brand had hoped to achieve; all teams used the same sets for four stints, while several managed to complete five – a feat Dunlop describes as a first in the modern era of sportscar racing.
Dunlop will supply tyres to 27 cars across all four Le Mans classes in 2016, more than any other year in the millennium. The supplier will transport more than 6,000 tyres using ten trucks; more than 80 personnel will provide fitting, engineering and support. Each class has different regulations and requirements and consequently different tyre specifications.
Dunlop and Aston Martin Racing describe the test of the manufacturer’s GT tyres for the first time in November in Bahrain as “a key turning point for both parties.” Dunlop committed to a full GT class development programme and Aston Martin began a return to lifting trophies. Le Mans is of great importance to both companies who are proud of their respective success there: Dunlop has 34 overall victories, more than any other tyre manufacturer, and Aston Martin took GT class wins in 2007and 2008 and the GTE Am class win in 2014.
Bridgestone has been made an official project partner for the Aston Martin DB11, slated to be launched later in 2016. The tyre manufacturer will support Aston Martin with a series of technical developments, durability testing and global media launches, including the use of its European Proving Ground in Aprilia, Italy. Tyres & Accessories first reported Bridgestone and Aston Martin’s partnership from the Geneva Motorshow 2016 in February.
Aston Martin Racing’s entries in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) have switched from Michelin to Dunlop tyres for the 2016 season. The team evaluated Dunlop’s motorsport tyres over the winter and, under a new technical partnership, the Dunlop rubber will now be supplied to the Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTE cars.
Success is always sexy. No wonder, therefore, that after finishing tenth in their debut appearance in 2013 and fifth last year, suspension expert BILSTEIN and the Aston Martin Racing works team are planning to join forces again for the 43rd edition of the ADAC Zurich 24-hour race at the Nürburgring (14 to 17 May 2015). Unlike the last two years though, the blue and yellow Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 with the new BILSTEIN 4-way MDS motorsport suspension is targeting overall victory this time around.
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