MOTORSPORT
Michelin is worried that data on its tyres might be made available to Ferrari (Bridgestone) if the French company supplies the Alain Prost F1 team with tyres next season. Prost will be using Ferrari engines. As the new company on the block, Michelin is obliged to supply 60% of the grid. Bridgestone has signed with six teams, and says that it is not looking for more, which would appear to leave Michelin with little choice other than to supply Prost.
For companies such as Michelin, motorsport plays a very important role in the development of the tyres eventually sold to the public – even if they are very different from those used on the track. Involvement in motorsport has two obvious benefits; publicity and proving technological superiority. There are other benefits though; it offers an extreme training ground for skilled engineers, developing team skills and experience at the limits of tyre technology, and knowledge which cannot be gained elsewhere. Products developed for the race track will never find their way directly on to road-going vehicles. However, many elements of motorsport tyres have found their way into commercial tyre products – compounds, Kevlar and Aramid fibres – whilst rally events supply information about tread design, puncture resistance, rubber hardness and thermal resistance. Motorsport also offers a test bed for simulation procedures. Development is tried out on the virtual test bed and trial tested in the most extreme conditions imaginable. From a tyre manufacturer’s point of view motorsport is about getting a set of tyres to complete the race and cross the line in first place – the rest of the car is only a means to that end. The tyre must be designed to last for the duration of the race. It therefore can and will have a completely different set of design criteria from a road tyre, which has to undergo 25,000 miles and more of driver abuse, function in many weather and road conditions, and give warning when approaching their limits. The race tyre is designed to carry out a single race at maximum power for the duration of its working life. Read more about this topic in the December issues of NEUE REIFENZEITUNG or TYRES & ACCESSORIES.
High growth rates in the winter tyre business brought Bridgestone/Firestone a strong 1999 result. Turnover figures were further improved over the previous year, according to the management, with prestige products “WT 12” and “FW 930”. To ensure this is not just a “one-off” success, a new high-performance low-profile tyre, the “Bridgestone RE 040”, already fitted as original equipment on the new BMW Z8, is to be introduced this spring. In the standard tyre segment the “Firestone FH 590” is also expected to convert the company’s 2000 performance into figures. A new departmental structure has been introduced at Bad Homburg to increase work efficiency and customer friendliness. Some divisions, like distribution, logistics and data processing, have been more closely interlinked. In the last few years the OE share has grown considerably so that it now amounts to one third of sales. The independent tyre trade continues to be the basis of the company’s business activities but is supplemented by other distribution channels like cooperatives, regional chains and car franchise firms, whose special requirements are, above all, seen as an opportunity to gain more know-how and to sense the needs of the market even earlier. This year again the whole public relations effort of Bridgestone/Firestone Germany will very consciously be centred round motorsport and Formula One in particular. Previous experience has shown that the manufacturer and its trade partners have benefited from the resulting image transfer to the standard tyre range.
Jaguar has announced a long term partnership with Michelin in which, from next season, all F1 cars in the Jaguar/Ford racing stable will be fitted with Michelin tyres.
Tom Kristensen, in a BMW-engined Williams FW21B, tested the latest version of Michelin F1 tyres in Miramas. The Dane was very impressed with the standard of the Michelin program and the technical progress the engineers achieved between the two 4-day sessions.
While, for example Michelin, declares the demands of Le Mans comparable with Formula 1, Goodyear is fitting the Corvette of the official Chevrolet team and a private BMW prototype with the Eagle F1 street tread pattern.
Chevrolet is calling its 2001 Corvette Z06 “a production vehicle that’s ready for the racetrack.” The P265/40ZR17 (front) and P295/35ZR18 (rear) Eagle F1 Supercar tyres weigh 23.4 pounds less than the run-flat tyres. The weight savings comes from removing the run-flat reinforcements as well as using lighter weight internal components.
The Formula 1 teams and the motorsport association FIA are in disagreement about the regulations for the next season. Among other things F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has suggested that each car at each racing weekend is supplied with three extra sets of tyres.
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