The FIA has confirmed Pirelli as sole Formula 1 tyre supplier for 2025-2027, with an option to extend the agreement for a further year. This announcement follows a detailed technical analysis of tender submissions from both Pirelli and Bridgestone.
YART Yamaha Official EWC Team won the 2023 FIM Endurance World Championship (EWC) title on Bridgestone Battlax tyres at Circuit Paul Ricard (16-17 September), Le Castellet, France. It is the fourth time and the third consecutive year that a team using Bridgestone’s flagship motorcycle tyres has won the EWC title. The brand has been supplying the tyres, which are designed to provide high grip, durability and comfort handling, to teams in the EWC series since 2017. YART Yamaha Official EWC Team, one of the three teams supported by Bridgestone, finished second in the opening race and first in the second race of the series, concluding the series with fourth place in the Bol d’Or 24-hour endurance race.
After serving as sole tyre supplier to the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) since 2021, Pirelli will pass on the baton at the end of next season. The tyre maker has announced having “not submitted its candidature” to supply WRC from 2025-2027. As a result, Pirelli will conclude its partnership as a single supplier to the WRC in 2024.
Pirelli has signed up to supply tyres exclusively to the Moto2 and Moto3 classes in 2024-26, replacing long-term supplier Dunlop. Pirelli calls the series “the strongest feeder classes in global motorsport.” The new three-year agreement is being finalised, with Pirelli set to become an integral part of the lightweight and intermediate classes of Grand Prix racing, adding to its portfolio of apex motorsport series supply deals. It will also supply various feeder series, known collectively as The Road to MotoGP. In global two-wheel racing, Pirelli is long-term exclusive tyre supplier to all classes of the Motul FIM Superbike World Championship. Pirelli will supply its Diablo Superbike slick tyres to both classes, following its strategy of closely aligning its racing and consumer products.
Pirelli will continue as sole official tyre supplier for all classes of the FIM Superbike World Championship for a further three years, up to and including the 2026 season. With the current agreement expiring at the end of this year, Dorna WorldSBK Organization, in agreement with motorcycling federation the FIM, proposed to Pirelli a new three-year agreement for the period 2024-2026.
According to comments from Florent Menegaux, we shouldn’t expect to see Michelin in Formula One from 2025. Speaking to US-based automotive site The Drive, the chief executive stated that Michelin isn’t interested in supplying tyres to F1 unless the FIA alters its view on how they should perform. In short, the French firm doesn’t want to make tyres that liven proceedings by falling apart.
Sponsors tend to come and go in the fast-moving world of motorsport, making Kumho’s relationship with the BMW Racing Drivers Club one of the longest of its type in UK club history – the opening race of the season at Brands Hatch on 8 April will mark its 26th year.
With the installation of a new high-speed machine within its R&D department, Pirelli is now equipped to test tyres at speeds of up to 310 mph. The Italian marque shared news of this enhanced testing capability shortly after the FIA issued an invitation to tender for F1 tyre supply from 2025.
Already the official tyre supplier to the TCR touring car competition on four continents, Kumho Tire recently signed a deal to become the title sponsor and exclusive tyre provider to the related TCR World Tour. All cars participating in the 2023 Kumho TCR World Tour will thus race on the Kumho Ecsta S700 racing tyre or, in wet conditions, the Ecsta W701.
If asked which tyres are worn by cars competing in Lamborghini Super Trofeo races, you may be tempted to name an Italian brand starting with ‘P’ – but you’d be wrong. As of the 2023 season, Hankook Tire is now official technical partner and exclusive tyre supplier to all three series of the one-make cup. It has also developed a new, high-performance race tyre for this engagement, the Hankook Ventus Race, a product specifically tailored to the Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo Evo2 racing car.
Kumho has replaced Michelin as control tyre supplier to TCR Australia, adding the race series down under to a touring car championship portfolio that already sees it providing tyres for TCR Europe, TCR South America, TCR Brazil, TCR Spain, TCR Eastern Europe and TCR Denmark. The tyre maker will also supply control tyres for the new in 2023 TCR World Tour.
Not only does the DTM touring car championship have a new home as part of Europe’s largest motoring association, the ADAC, changes are also afoot in the tyre department. Pirelli, who has long equipped another ADAC-backed series, is taking over from Michelin as exclusive DTM tyre supplier in 2023.
Formula 1 isn’t the only race series switching to an 18-inch tyre. When the NASCAR Next Gen stock car makes its regular season debut at the Daytona 500 on Sunday 20 February, drivers will compete on the newly designed Goodyear Eagle race tyres for the first time in a points-paying race.
Goodyear is the official tyre partner of ERA Championship, the new electric single-seater racing series that will launch this summer as a support series to the Goodyear-supported FIA ETCR – eTouring Car World Cup. As tyre partner, Goodyear will supply tyres to every driver and car in the entry-level electric formula racing series. For the […]
Following the WSC Group’s announcement that Kumho Tire has developed a bespoke tyre for TCR competition, TCR Europe has confirmed its intention to switch its exclusive tyre supply from Hankook to Kumho for the 2022 season. WSC approved the Kumho tyre following a successful evaluation test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on the day after the final event of the 2021 TCR Europe season.
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