Formula One
This week the second four-day Formula One test of 2013 is taking place in Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya. This venue is a popular choice for testing due to its all year round mild temperatures and track layout. Some say that if a F1 car can be quick in Barcelona, it can be quick in most places. This is what the teams will attempt to establish between Monday and Thursday.
Generation Y is square in Cooper Tire Europe’s sights following an overhaul of the company’s marketing strategy for the region. The tyre maker reports undergoing a major shift in emphasis towards increasing brand awareness among the 18 to 35-year-old male demographic.
A return to Australia’s V8 Supercars Championship awaits Bridgestone in 2013, with the tyre maker teaming up with Nissan Motorsport in a sponsorship deal that will see Bridgestone branding on the Jack Daniel's Racing Nissan Altimas of Todd and Rick Kelly. The arrangement begins in round one of this year’s series, which gets underway in Adelaide on 28 February. The Clipsal 500 event in Adelaide marks the return of Nissan to Australia's premier motorsport category after a 20-year hiatus, with Mercedes-Benz also joining the expanded series.
After competing as one of three tyre suppliers to the Australian GT Championship in 2012, Pirelli’s Australian motorsport supplier Trofeo Motorsport has been granted the rights to become the control tyre supplier for the 2013 season, and the naming rights sponsor for the category for the next three years.
Pirelli has announced the P Zero slick tyre compounds it will provide to Formula One for the first four grands prix of the 2013 World Championship season. The races will take place in Australia, Malaysia, China and Bahrain, over the course of which all four compounds will be used. In addition, no two grands prix will receive the same allocation variation, meaning that there will be a wide variety of tactical possibilities on show in the opening stages of the season. Such a move could help to retain the intrigue of the opening stages of the 2012 season, during which seven different drivers claimed victory in each of the first seven grands prix. Pirelli’s tyres have been overhauled this year too, and while the compounds are designed to offer fast warm-up performance through being generally softer, teams will be getting used to the way their cars handle the new rubber in the different conditions offered by these races.
Pirelli has launched a communication project for undergraduate, postgraduate and recently graduated students, offering the chance of a two-month paid work placement in Milan, in addition to publication in the manufacturer’s 2012 Annual Report alongside artwork by New Yorker cartoonist, Liza Donnelly. The brief presented by Pirelli is simple: find the most significant word that sums up the values students would like to matter most in their future. Pirelli will send the submissions, accompanied by the students’ explanations of their choices, to a jury in order to select the 10 most representative words. These 10 words, and the accompanying reflections, will then be interpreted by Donnelly, and printed in the 2012 Report.
It isn’t just Formula One whose tyres have, in Pirelli’s words, undergone a “revolution”. In this, the tenth consecutive season of single tyre supply to the Superbike series – the longest single tyre supply agreement in the history of motorsport – the Italian firm is ready for the switch from 16.5-inch to 17-inch tyres.
Those wanting to see more overtaking action in Formula One won’t be disappointed by what Pirelli has in store. During today’s presentation of Pirelli’s 2013 motorsport season, the Italian tyre maker detailed its new F1 tyres. It stated that this year the P Zero dry weather and Cinturato wet weather ranges have been “completely revolutionised,” having been developed “according to the wishes of the teams and the latest rules from world motorsport’s governing body, the FIA.” Pirelli says the objective of all these innovations, which work closely together, is to improve performance and increase thermal degradation, to ensure at least two pit stops per race and open up more strategic options for all the teams.
One of the more critical drivers of Pirelli’s P Zero and Cinturato Formula One tyres has stated that he expects teams to “go into this season feeling more assured about the Pirelli tyres.” McLaren’s Jenson Button told the team’s website that he expected a more settled start to this years’ campaign, contrasting with the undeniably exciting opening stages of the 2012 season, which saw seven different Grand Prix winners. Button’s first taste of Pirelli’s 2013 rubber came during free practice at the season closing Brazilian Grand Prix, with the Italian firm bringing two extra sets of prototype tyres for teams in addition to the usual allocation.
The two winners of this year’s Tyrepress.com competition have been decided. Peter Poyntz-Roberts, a Bridgestone UK consumer sales key account manager, and James Lomax from Bury, North Manchester will receive a pair of tickets each to Autosport International 2013 at the Birmingham NEC on 12 or 13 January. The prize will be posted in the first week of January 2013. Thank you to the many readers of Tyrepress.com and Tyres & Accessories who entered the competition and congratulations to both winners. We hope all visitors to the NEC enjoy what will undoubtedly be another great show.
Bridgestone Australia has provided its Ferrari F2004 Formula One show car to the country’s National Motor Museum on a long-term loan. The car, an exact replica of the racer that won 15 out of 18 races in the 2004 Formula One season and scored 12 pole positions at the hands of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello, was officially unveiled at the Adelaide-based museum on 12 December.
Pirelli UK has announced the winner of its Formula One Experience. The top prize of tickets to the 2013 Formula One British Grand Prix and a trip for two to the Red Bull Racing factory has been won by Ben Flynn from Warrington.
The 2012 Formula One season has just ended, but Pirelli is eager to know sooner rather than later whether its services will be needed after next year. Autosport writes that Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery would be happy for the question of Pirelli’s F1 involvement beyond the current three-year contract to be settled quickly.
According to Pirelli, during the 2012 Formula One season the tyre maker supplied teams with a total of 31,800 race tyres (22,500 dry tyres and 9,300 wet tyres) plus an additional 6,600 tyres for testing. A quarter of all tyres delivered were soft compound, while medium proved the second most popular fitment and accounted for 21 per cent of all tyres. Intermediate tyres accounted for a further 18 per cent, while hard, wet and supersoft supplies were 17 per cent, 11 per cent and six per cent respectively. Two per cent of all tyres supplied were development tyres. The average lifespan of dry compound tyres this season was 180 kilometres, while wet compound tyres lasted 140 kilometres on average.
Autosport International will open the 2013 motorsport season at the Birmingham NEC, UK on 12-13 January, when it opens to the public. Tyres & Accessories/Tyrepress.com is pleased to offer two pairs of tickets for this dynamic and engaging event to the two winners of our reader competition. If you want to win, all you have to do is answer this very simple question: Who won the 2012 Formula One Drivers’ Championship? To be in with a chance, simply email your answer to info@77.237.250.82 or post it the old fashion way to: 6a Salem Street, Stoke-on-Trent, ST1 5PR. Mark your entries “Autosport Competition” and don’t forget to include your contact details. The two winners will be drawn from all the correct answers received before 21 December, 2012.
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