MOTORSPORT
Pirelli’s already done much to indicate it will remain the sole Formula One tyre supplier in 2014 and beyond, but so far no official agreement to this effect has been formalised. Yet the tyre maker’s motorsport director Paul Hembery says that much of the work towards a new agreement is complete.
When Pirelli’s Board of Directors approved a number of changes to the company’s management structure yesterday, it confirmed that position of chief commercial officer will no longer be required. The position will disappear from Pirelli’s management structure at the end of this year and the incumbent chief commercial officer, Andrea Pirondini, will leave Pirelli.
A new management role, that of ‘general manager operations’, has been created at Pirelli, and Gregorio Borgo has been appointed the first incumbent. Borgo, currently head of Pirelli’s Asia-Pacific region, will report directly to company chairman and chief executive officer Marco Tronchetti Provera in his new position.
Motorcyclists are an ageing consumer group – according to some figures, more than 60 per cent of riders now over 40 years old, almost double the proportion of ten years ago. While motorcycle performance has improved with significant increases in horsepower and top speeds, many riders run older models, and according to a recent report from German publication Motorrad, the average two-wheeler age in now more than 14 years old, two years older than in 2007.
Cooper Tire has replaced Firestone as the official tyre supplier to the US-based Indy Lights Series from 2014, making Cooper the official tyre of the entire Mazda Road to Indy ladder. The agreement will initially run for five years, with an option to extend beyond the end of the 2018 season.
Pirelli may be Italian, but its world-famous calendar began life here in the UK, the baby of the company’s British marketing team, which was given the task of producing a calendar for Pirelli’s most valued clients and associates. This year, the British-born ‘Cal’ celebrates its half-century, and Tyres & Accessories spoke with Pirelli Calendar project coordinator Julie Naylor about the origins of the Cal’s success, how it has developed over the course of five decades and what meaning it maintains in Pirelli’s marketing mix alongside the Italian firm’s Formula One involvement.
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Dunlop has confirmed its reappointment as official tyre supplier by the MSA British Touring Car Championship. This extends the sole-supplier partnership that began in 2003, and continues a relationship between Dunlop and the BTCC that can be traced back to the championship’s creation in 1958.
Pirelli’s tyre supply contract for the GP2 and GP3 series has been renewed. The Italian firm has supplied the GP3 series since its inception in 2010 and took on GP2 supply the following year. Comments made by the organiser upon announcing this multi-year renewal for the two Formula One feeder categories – that his philosophy has always been to use the same tyre supplier as F1 – also indicates an official deal for the top-level championship may be imminent.
Five of the top seven ranked competitors at the second staging of the King of the Valleys endurance event used Maxxis’ M8060 Trepador competition tyre. Maxxis UK managing director Derek McMartin says the partnership Maxxis has established with the King of the Valleys is “hugely beneficial”.
Pirelli has announced its tyre compound nominations for the forthcoming grands prix in Korea, Japan and India. The P Zero White medium tyre is present for all three events – it seems likely that Monaco will remain the only grand prix of 2013 at which it was not amongst Pirelli’s allocation. Each of the other three compounds will feature once, with the two hardest compounds deployed for the seventh time this season at Japan’s Suzuka.
Arron Newby has become the youngest ever Intenational Rally Isle of Man winner after winning in the event’s 50th anniversary year. Newby is supported by Pirelli, and the 18 year old took his TEG Subaru Impreza with Manx co-driver Rob Fagg to victory on the Italian tyre manufacturer’s RX and RE asphalt tyres. Pirelli UK Motorsport operations manager Matthew Corby said: “The Manx is one of the most prestigious events in British rallying with the likes of Colin McRae and Roger Clark having won this rally in the past.”
Pirelli is taking its softest specification P Zero Formula One tyre to Singapore’s street circuit, but in a slight change of tack from 2012 the Italian tyre supplier has opted to take the P Zero White medium compound tyre as the second option. Motorsport director Paul Hembery said the decision was based on the evolving conditions particular to this, the only race to be run at night under street lamps on F1’s calendar, as well as the circuit’s stop-start nature and the fact that it is one of the year’s longest races, leading to heavier fuel loads.
Marty McCormack and Phil Clarke clinched the inaugural West Wales Rally Spares RAC Rally Championship with one round still to run as they slid their Kumho-shod MKII Escort to a fourth consecutive victory on 8 September’s Red Kite Historic Stages event. Commenting on the result, Kumho’s European motorsport manager Steve Thompson said: “Marty and Phil have performed faultlessly throughout this excellent new championship and thoroughly deserve their win. We are naturally delighted with the way our tyres have aided their cause.”
The Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship will be at Rockingham Motor Speedway in Northampton this weekend, as rounds 22, 23 and 24 all take place on Sunday. With nine of the 30 races remaining the top four drivers are separated by 30 points, with over 200 points still up for grabs. Honda Yuasa Racing’s Matt Neal only six points clear of Pirtek Racing’s Andrew Jordan at the top. The weekend marks the tenth anniversary of BTCC’s landmark first visit in 2003. Tyre supplier and title sponsor Dunlop is anticipating an exciting weekend following 15 year high attendances at Knockhill in Scotland, where 2009 BTCC champion Colin Turkington scored twin victories in his eBay Motors BMW on the tight, twisty Scottish track. Rockingham provides an excellent contrast, with fast sweepers and tight hairpins sure to provide some of the best overtaking opportunities of the season. The entire race day will be broadcast live and in high definition on ITV4 from 10:45, providing the sort of branding opportunity that has made the series so attractive to Dunlop.
Previewing this weekend’s DTM racing at the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben, Hankook’s racing engineer has predicted that the company’s softer option tyre could prove the difference for the cars able to use it best. Michael Eckert explained: "I expect that the option tyres will enable a large number of fast laps before any significant drop-off effect becomes discernible here at Oschersleben. The teams who are able to find the right vehicle set-up with which to make optimum use of the Ventus Race Plus will be among those to land the front positions.”
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