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Pirelli extends GT Cup tyre supply contract

Pirelli has confirmed that it will be the only tyre supplier to the GT Cup Championship until at least 2014. Pirelli UK met with championship organisers Bute Motorsport at Pirelli’s Didcot base last week to discuss the terms of the contract. Pirelli UK Motorsport’s operation manager Matthew Corby said: “The GT Cup Championship is home to some of the most spectacular racing cars in British motorsport, and we are delighted to continue our partnership with this prestigious series. The opening two rounds have proved very exciting and with the new regulations introduced for 2012, I look forward to watching the series grow from strength to strength.”

28th May 2012/by Tyrepress Editors

Pirelli ready for season “highlight” at Monaco

With Monaco’s street circuit relying almost exclusively on mechanical grip, Pirelli believes it is the ideal territory for its P Zero Red supersoft tyre – which benefits from a rapid warm-up time and is capable of generating very high levels of traction and cornering forces. Pirelli says the tyre will be particularly important during qualifying, which, with so few opportunities to overtake in Monaco, will be more important than usual. Pirelli also says race strategy has a profound effect at Monaco because it is often easier to make up positions in the pits through an effective strategy rather than by passing on the track. Tyre wear and degradation is the lowest seen all season, making a one-stop strategy a distinct possibility for some teams.

25th May 2012/by Tyrepress Editors

Pirelli supersoft P Zero Red makes F1 debut

Pirelli has used its P Zero Red supersoft Formula One tyre for the first time in 2012 today. The tyre was specifically designed for tight and twisty street circuits such as Monaco, making the most iconic Grand Prix on the calendar the perfect venue for its introduction. Jenson Button set the fastest time of the day during the second practice session with a time of 1:15:746 on the supersoft tyre.

24th May 2012/by Tyrepress Editors

Michelin Facebook poll to decide “ultimate supercar”

Michelin is currently polling its Facebook followers on their favourite supercars of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, ahead of this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed where it is sponsoring the Supercar Paddock. The first two rounds of voting are over, with the Porsche 959 prevailing over the Ferrari F40 and the Lamborghini Countach in the ‘80s, and the McLaren F1 overcoming the Porsche 993 GT2 and the Bugatti EB110 in the ‘90s. The 2000s bracket features the Ascari KZ-1, the Koenigsegg CCX and the Bugatti Veyron.

24th May 2012/by Tyrepress Editors

Pirelli nominates soft, hard P Zeros for British Grand Prix

Pirelli will bring its P Zero Yellow and Silver Formula One tyres to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix, the tyre supplier has announced. As is now customary, the Italian manufacturer announced its compound allocations for the three races following the coming weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix. In Montreal’s Canadian Grand Prix, Pirelli will bring its P Zero Yellow soft and P Zero Red supersoft tyres, while at the Grand Prix of Europe in Valencia, the teams will have the P Zero White medium and P Zero Yellow soft at their disposal.

21st May 2012/by Tyrepress Editors

Pirelli welcomes P Zero’s Auto Express recognition

Pirelli has welcomed the plaudits its P Zero tyre received from Auto Express’s recent product awards. Auto Express has been conducting tyre tests in the UK for over a decade, and the magazine’s most recent product awards assessed 10 different tyres on aquaplaning, cabin noise and economy. A former winner in this size, the Pirelli P Zero was named one of the top three with Auto Express stating: “It [the Pirelli P Zero] makes its way into our top three thanks to an excellent performance in the wet tests, comfortably winning the braking and handling disciplines and finishing in the top four in the other categories.”

14th May 2012/by Tyrepress Editors

UK launch for Pirelli Grand Prix Challenge

The Pirelli Grand Prix Challenge, which first went live in the US in 2011, has now been expanded to the UK market. The tyre maker has high expectations for the online Formula One prediction game – last year, the American GP Challenge website received 140,000 unique visits and had over 700,000 page views. Prizes to be won through the challenge include a trip to the 2013 United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.

14th May 2012/by Tyrepress Editors

F1 tyre wear Ecclestone’s wish, says Pirelli

Pirelli has responded to Formula One fans’ criticism of the perceived poor performance, and specifically the rapid wear of the Italian manufacturer’s F1 tyres. In a video interview, Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery shared that a short-lived tyre was part of the ‘brief’ the tyre maker received from Formula One empresario Bernie Ecclestone.

2nd May 2012/by Tyrepress Editors

Pirelli in-season F1 tyre testing at Mugello

While the Formula One season currently involves 20 long weekends across most of the world’s continents – Africa and Antarctica continue to hold out – tyre supplier Pirelli is adding a mid-week run at Mugello, Italy from 1-3 May; the first time that in-season testing has been seen in Formula One since September 2008 (excluding last year’s Abu Dhabi young driver test). The manufacturer explains that the test will allow for greater understanding of the way the P Zero, and Cinturato if rain is forthcoming, tyres work, “accumulating more data” and allowing some of the team’s “third drivers to get time in a Formula One car on the current tyres.” This is the first mid-season test since Bridgestone completed a session in 2008, though pre-, and post-season sessions are common practice.

30th April 2012/by Tyrepress Editors

Pirelli: Tight racing aided by F1 tyres’ small performance gaps

Pirelli motorsport director, Paul Hembery has commented that Bahrain presented a technical challenge to Pirelli, whose tyres needed to avoid “falling off the cliff” in terms of their performance in harsh racing conditions. Sebastian Vettel became the fourth different driver and Red Bull the fourth different team to have won a Grand Prix after four events. Hembery believes the narrowing of the performance gaps between compounds has helped racing become tighter, evinced by these results. The Pirelli director also congratulated the company’s former test driver Roman Grosjean for claiming a first podium finish, and his Lotus team, which finished on the second (Kimi Raikkonen) and third steps.

23rd April 2012/by Tyrepress Editors

Drivers, fans question tyre performance in Bahrain GP

Pirelli’s Formula 1 tyres faced criticism following yesterday’s Bahrain Grand Prix. BBC Sport reports that seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, who finished the race in tenth place, complained over the tyre’s too quick rate of degradation. "I had to drive at a pace to manage the tyres to finish with tyres left over," he said. "We should question whether that should be the case. It's unsatisfying and not what a Formula 1 event should be."

23rd April 2012/by Tyrepress Editors

Renault fits Bridgestone to Clio RS Red Bull Racing RB7

Renault has chosen to fit Bridgestone Potenza RE050A tyres as original equipment for the Renault Clio RS Red Bull Racing RB7, launched in March 2012. The 200hp limited edition car was developed to celebrate Red Bull Racing’s Formula One Constructors’ title – Renault has supplied its RS27 V8 engine to the Milton Keynes-based team since the 2007 season.

18th April 2012/by Tyrepress Editors

Pirelli increases Performance Centres by 25%

Pirelli has announced that the number of its UK Performance Centres (PPCs) has increased by 25 per cent over the past two years. Pirelli presented the information at a PPC meeting the headquarters of reigning FIA Formula One Constructors' World Champions Red Bull Racing in Milton Keynes last month. In August 2010, there were 66 PPC branches but this figure has “steadily grown over the past 20 months” to reach 83 in the UK and Ireland. PPCs are audited for quality, helping the manufacturer to direct high performance car drivers to the outlets that will best suit their needs.

17th April 2012/by Tyrepress Editors

Rosberg dominant as McLaren’s use Pirelli medium tyre for podium charge

Nico Rosberg has stamped his name on the 2012 Formula One season with a dominant weekend in China, during which Pirelli says the Mercedes driver managed his allocation of the P Zero White medium tyre and P Zero Yellow soft tyre perfectly. With Ross Brawn behind him – as he was for teammate, Michael Schumacher’s seven Championship titles – Rosberg is now firmly marked out as a contender, claiming pole position by half a second, and taking his debut victory over 20 seconds ahead of the pursuing McLarens of Jensen Button and Lewis Hamilton. Both British drivers showed masterful use of pit stops and tyre compounds as Button, Hamilton and Mark Webber all passed defending champion Sebastian Vettel, who used a two-stop strategy, on fresher sets of P Zero White medium tyres.

16th April 2012/by Tyrepress Editors

P Zero Yellow soft tyre 0.6 seconds faster in China

Pirelli has taken its P Zero Yellow soft and P Zero White medium tyres to China for the forthcoming Grand Prix weekend, and it looks likely that the softer tyre will provide drivers with around 0.6 seconds per lap following Friday practice. Mercedes driver, Michael Schumacher used the P Zero Yellow to set the fastest time of the day during the second session, setting a time of 1:35:973 on his first flying lap. Pirelli said this display underlines the rapid warm-up of the soft compound.

13th April 2012/by Tyrepress Editors