MOTORSPORT
Avon Tyres has signed up as title sponsor to the MSA British Hillclimb Championship, which will duly be known as the Avon Tyres MSA British Hillclimb Championship. The series, which got underway on 4 February at Leicestershire Circuit, is organised by the BARC and includes rounds at leading UK hillclimb venues, as well as Jersey and Guernsey.
According to news published by Autosport.com, Pirelli may not be far from closing a deal that will provide it with a new Formula 1 test car. The tyre maker has been without its own test vehicle since the end of last year as the modified 2009 Toyota used in preparation for its F1 comeback is now a museum piece, its technology deemed too outdated to provide Pirelli with good data.
The Avon brand, manufactured by Cooper Tire & Rubber Company Europe Ltd, has unveiled the fourth generation of its GT racing tyre since it took over as sole supplier and title sponsor of the series in 2006. Avon Tyres Motorsport technical manager, Mike Lynch, believes the new tyre will be around a second quicker than its predecessor around most circuits on the British GT calendar but, importantly, will also be durable enough for teams to use strategies demanding longer stints.
This week, as the 2012 Formula One season gets under way at Jerez in Spain, F1 teams will have their first chance to sample the definitive specification of Pirelli’s latest tyres. During the four-day test at the Andalusian circuit between 7 and 10 February, each car will have 25 sets of Pirelli’s new soft, medium and hard compounds available, along with wet tyres if needed. Teams are allowed a maximum of 100 sets of tyres per car each year for testing purposes, and they are permitted to choose the compounds they would like to test within their allowance. Not a single team nominated the supersoft compound – the only one to remain unchanged from 2011 – for Jerez.
Starting in 2013 Pirelli will supply World Superbike Series (WSBK) riders and teams with 17-inch racing tyres instead of the previously used 16.5-inch rubber. This decision prompted Tyres & Accessories to ask Pirelli racing director Georgio Barbier what led to this “important step”, as Pirelli itself describes it, and how it can benefit the average rider. Unsurprisingly, Barbier retained a professional silence regarding the costs involved in Pirelli’s role as Superbike tyre supplier and how this compares to its Formula 1 commitment. The same applies to questioning on whether the planned switch to 17-inch tyres in 2013 is a sign of Pirelli’s intention to seek a continuation of its WSBK tyre supply beyond 2015.
Avon Tyres Motorsport has supplied tyres to the inaugural Gulf 12 Hours event in Abu Dhabi on 20 January. The event was held at the Yas Marina Grand Prix circuit, featuring GT3 cars and CN2-class sports prototypes competing in a two six-hour races, the first of which took place in the heat of the day, the second under floodlights in the evening.
Kumho will be the sole tyre supplier to the international Auto GP series for 550bhp single-seat racing cars. In a change for the 2012 season, all Auto GP teams will be required to use two specifications of tyre per weekend, a parallel to the tyre regulation in Formula One. Kumho says the management of prime and option compounds will strengthen the series’ role as a “premier schooling grounds for Grand Prix drivers”. Auto GP will also include a KERS-style boost system giving drivers an extra 50bhp up to 10 times per race, and a mandatory pit stop for each race.
Starting in the 2012 season, Hankook Tire will serve as exclusive tyre supplier to two Italian-organised events, the Superstars International Series touring car championship and the GTSprint International Series grand touring championship. The company will provide tyres to both series within the framework of what it calls a “long-term partnership.” The tyres to be used in both championships are the Ventus F200 slick and the Z207 rain tyre.
The Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1 car scheduled to be launched tomorrow (an event postponed due to heavy snowfalls) will be fitted with wheels produced by the rim manufacturer OZ. The Italian wheel maker has served as a supplier to numerous top Formula 1 teams for a number of years now, but this is its first Ferrari engagement – previously the Ferrari team was supplied by the BBS brand. The agreement between OZ and Ferrari covers a three-year period and the wheels supplied will sport the famous yellow OZ logo, a design that harks back to the one used in the early Eighties.
Yokohama will be the new control tyre supplier for the Irish Touring Car Championship or ITCC starting in the 2012 season. Touring cars have become something of a speciality for Yokohama’s motorsport activity; its Advan range is currently used as the control tyre in the FIA World Touring Car Championship as well as the Russian, Chinese and Scandinavian national iterations.
Bridgestone has started testing its 2012 MotoGP tyre testing season in Valencia, Spain and Sepang, Malaysia. The company says it has spent the winter completing a programme of intensive development, and the tyre evaluation performed around the world over the next two months will be used to gauge perception among the riders. While six lap records were set on Bridgestone rubber in 2011, feedback from riders suggested that additional safety features needed to be built into new tyres, and Bridgestone Motorsport general manager, Tohru Ubukata says this is where the focus has been.
Maxxis is sponsoring the Australian Open tennis tournament, the finals of which are this weekend in Melbourne. It is the second time that the company has sponsored the grand slam event, and adds to the company’s marketing strategy of top-level sport sponsorship; the brand has put itself alongside the New York Yankees, Liverpool Football Club and a number of high profile motorsport series.
Formula One tyre supplier, Pirelli has presented its 2012 range of tyres for the 63rd FIA World Championship at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi. Responding to new aerodynamic regulations regarding blown exhausts, the tyres have been developed with a squarer profiles, in addition to previously promised characteristics such as softer, more competitive compounds with consistent degradation. Pirelli says it wants to help make races more entertaining and less predictable; it will try to make team strategies more important, though it still aims to have two to three pit stops. The other change is one of branding – Pirelli has reinstated the Cinturato name from the 1950s. Wet and intermediate tyres will feature Cinturato branding.
Falken’s 2011 British Drift Champion, Matt Carter and his teammate, Paul Cheshire have marked British television programme and magazine Top Gear’s ascension to 10 million Facebook fans. Using a number of Sumitomo brand, Falken’s FK452 tyres, a stretch of old runway in Oxfordshire and two of its cars, the drift drivers used techniques from the sport to write the number 10 on the tarmac. A video of the stunt, completed in a single take, is available on the Top Gear website.
Boasting a stronger presence at 2012’s Autosport show than on its debut the previous year, Maxxis International UK took the opportunity of the motorsport calendar opener to showcase the breadth of its product range. Managing director Derek McMartin said: “During our first visit to Autosport International last year our aim was to generate greater awareness by telling people all about the Maxxis brand.
If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com. Or click below to continue on Tyrepress.
