TAFF Industry Advertising Campaign Award nominee Hankook has launched the second phase of its global television advertising campaign, running with the slogan, “Be One with It”. In Europe campaign will run across September and October having first launched in May 2011, on air in France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Russia and the UK.
Pirelli has good reason to anticipate this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza more than other events in the calendar; located in parkland just half an hour from the Italian firm’s headquarters to the north of Milan, the track – one of Formula One’s fastest with an average speed in the region of 250kmh – has been integral to the brand’s motorsport history. Pirelli will bring its P Zero White (medium) and P Zero Yellow (soft) tyres to Monza, which the supplier anticipates will provide plenty of scope for the teams to use different tyre strategies.
Previewing the weekend’s Formula One action, Pirelli has called Belgium’s Spa Francorchamps circuit “an epic track… a true driver’s track. With the longest lap of the season, the track poses plenty of questions for the tyres too: the Eau Rouge corner puts the equivalent of 1,000 kilograms on the front-left tyre and 950 kilograms on the rear tyre; Pouhon is a demanding downhill left-hand corner with 4G of sideways acceleration throughout the bend; the third sector demands full speed for a long period of time, leaving the tyres to cope with a vertical load of 1,100kg from downforce; and during the final part of the lap, the drivers brake hard for the Bus Stop chicane.
Reuters reports that, in a move to alleviate the euro zone crisis Italy faces, Pirelli & C. SpA has signed a newspaper petition offering to buy government bonds. The tyre maker is said to be one of 24 Italian companies that added their names to a petition instigated by the business daily Milano Finanza.
Pirelli’s announcement regarding the tyre selections for the Belgium, Italy and Singapore Grands Prix has been followed by the news that the manufacturer’s Motorsport director Paul Hembery doesn’t “think we’ll see the hard compound again”. Speaking with Autosport, Hembery stated that the medium compound P Zero F1 tyre is “proving sufficiently robust for the aggressive circuits”, speculating that a new compound could be inserted “between the current softs and mediums”, making the current medium compound the hardest of the four.
Tyrepress.com reported Pirelli’s selected tyres for the Belgium, Italy and Singapore Grands Prix earlier in the week, and reaction to the news that the tyre supplier will make its soft P Zero Yellow tyre available at all three events seemed to raise a few eyebrows in motorsport circles. Spa-Francorchamps and Monza are two of the faster circuits on the Formula One calendar, and it was suggested Ferrari’s preference for the softer tyres had influenced Pirelli’s choice to bring the Yellow tyre alongside the medium P Zero White. However Paul Hembery, Pirelli Motorsport director, has rebuffed the suggestion that the choice was made to benefit any team in particular.
The German trailer industry is undergoing a very rapid revival in its fortunes, according to consulting group Clear. Output of trailers has been boosted by three key demand growth factors, says the firm’s latest report on the subject.
Firstly, the German market itself has recovered from the nadir of 2009 in splendid style: sales of trailers will exceed the combined demand of France, the UK and Italy in 2011 as it did in 2010. Secondly, exports of trailers from Germany increased by 90 per cent in 2010 as markets in both East and West Europe, with a very few exceptions, started to recover. Thirdly, stocks of finished trailers which had accumulated as the recession bit, had been large cleaned out, leaving the industry in a very lean condition. This meant that all new orders went straight into increased production.
Nokian’s Vianor fast-fit network entered southern Europe on July 27 with the opening of an outlet in Montebelluna, Italy. This first Vianor outlet in the region is also the 800th centre the Finnish manufacturer has launched since the first opened for business more than a decade ago.
Formula One tyre supplier Pirelli has announced the tyre compounds it will take to the Grands Prix in Belgium, Italy and Singapore. The two European races will see the P Zero Yellow (soft) and White (medium) tyres used, while Pirelli will take the P Zero Red (super soft) and Yellow to the Asian night race to take on the streets of the island’s major city, where grip will be at a premium.
Brembo Racing and Roush Yates Performance Products announced the start of a partnership in North America, with the latter appointed as an authorised distributor of Brembo Racing high-performance brakes and accessories for the “Oval market”, including series such as Nascar. In additional motorsport news, Brembo has also been made the official supplier of Truck Sport Lutz Bernau (TSB) team at FIA European Truck Championship, marking the brake manufacturer’s entrance in the segment of racing trucks races. On the non-motorsport side Brembo, headquartered in Italy with plants in 15 countries, has also signed an agreement to acquire Perdriel SA, an Argentinian manufacturer of brake discs with plants in the Buenos Aires area, a workforce of about 150 and expected revenues of about €20 million.
As Pirelli observed in the July 2011 edition of ‘Truck’, the tyre maker’s in-house magazine for the commercial vehicle sector, the winter of 2010-11 was one of the severest in recent memory. The UK experienced snowfalls as early as November, it noted, causing such traffic disruptions that the Automobile Association describes the period as the most active in its 100-year history – the motoring association answered 200,000 calls for assistance on November 29 alone. In December the lowest temperatures since 1890 were reached.
As of July 2011, Conti360° Fleet Services has extended its European coverage into Austria. This is the first addition to the German tyre maker’s service portfolio following its launch in eight core European markets – Belgium, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, Spain and the Czech Republic – and Continental now has plans to further expand the network into other regions.
A reunion of sorts took place yesterday as part of the German Grand Prix run-up activities: Pirelli’s pre-race press event was visited by the tyre maker’s original test driver, Nick Heidfeld. Although some frowned upon the German driver’s departure from Pirelli last year to secure a driving position with Sauber Motorsport, Heidfeld was welcomed as the star guest at the Pirelli event, which was hosted by Pirelli Germany managing director Michael Schwobel and Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery.
Coatings specialist Zircotec supported 10 teams at Formula Student 2011, which was held at Silverstone last weekend. The firm’s ceramic coatings were used by a number of the participants including University of Hertfordshire, Coventry University and Cambridge, the latter adopting Zircotec’s patented carbon composite coating to protect a composite bulkhead. “Zircotec believes that Formula Student is an extremely worthwhile activity, helping participants to understand and implement the technologies of today’s contemporary race cars,” says Zircotec’s managing director Terry Graham.
Following the recent establishment of a new European management team based in Birmingham and headed by Martin West, Chinese-based tyre manufacturer Sailun reports that inroads have been made in the creation and development of a specialist European truck tyre distributor network. Appointments and partnerships have already been established in Spain (Grupo Soledad), Italy (Intergomma), United Kingdom (Kirkby Tyres), Ukraine (Shina Trading), Poland (Handlopex), Latvia (Lattakko) and Sweden (Dackarna).
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