MOTORSPORT
Testing of Pirelli’s Formula One tyres continues, and the Italian tyre maker says test driver Nick Heidfeld was busy at the Le Castellet circuit in the south of France during the first week of September. The Toyota TF109 test car fitted with F1 PZero tyres was on the track for two days in order to further evaluate tyre construction and compounds.
September’s issue of Fast Ford magazine carries reports on two performance tests – how different tyre pressure settings affect a car’s handling characteristics and the performance benefits that can be gained from fitting lightweight alloy wheels – both of which were conducted using the Maxxis MA-Z1 tyre. “Fast Ford is the UK’s top Ford tuning magazine and is highly influential in reaching an important performance enthusiast audience, so we are delighted with the magazine’s very positive feedback on the MA-Z1 from these two important tests,” says Maxxis International UK’s managing director Derek McMartin.
Swiftly following the last-minute bid by Michelin to become a tyre supplier in the 2011 World Rally Championship, the current provider Pirelli has officially ruled itself out of the series next year. Paul Hembury, Pirelli’s motorsport director, told Autosport magazine that the sports’ lack of rule stability was a factor, citing “three significant rule changes in the last nine months”, as was the FIA’s rejection of Pirelli’s three-year tender offer in December 2009.
Pirelli Tire North America has expanded its OE business with Ford with the new fitment on the upcoming 2012 Mustang Boss 302 and Boss 302 Laguna Seca models, says Tire Review. The cars will be shod with P Zero and P Zero Corsa tyres, respectively.
Having ruled itself out of Formula One tyre supply in the wake of Pirelli’s dramatic entrance earlier in the year Michelin looks like it may be on the verge of entering another major FIA motorsport series. Autosport reports today that the French giant’s competitions director Nick Shorrock contacted motorsport’s governing body to make known its desire to take on the supply of rally tyres for the first time since the 2007 season, when it was involved under the BF Goodrich brand. At the start of the 2011 season it will be six years since the Michelin name was associated with the World Rally Championship.
The impact of the correct tyre choices at the Belgian Grand Prix was underlined by the discrepant fortunes of old team-mates/enemies Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, with the former winning the race and the latter falling victim to poorly timed dry and wet weather tyre fitments. Hamilton used a soft – hard – intermediate tyre strategy throughout an afternoon in which team bosses’ eyes remained on the rain radar. Alonso gambled in qualifying, using up too many fresh soft compound Bridgestone Potenzas. Red Bull’s Mark Webber, an increasingly likely title-challenger, finished second after surviving a terrible start from pole, while Renault’s Robert Kubica finished third, once again underlining his class in a car many believe to be inferior to those of his closest championship rivals, Felipe Massa and Nico Rosberg.
Formula One is back this weekend after its summer break. Belgium’s Spa Francorchamps circuit saw Bridgestone’s soft tyre take Ferrari ‘s Fernando Alonso to the fastest time of the day amidst typically mixed weather conditions. Alonso set his 1m 49.032secs time on a largely dry track right at the end of the afternoon session, which was interrupted by a red flag period. Alonso was also fastest in the morning’s wet conditions, using Bridgestone’s wet tyre to set his time. The full weather range of Bridgestone Potenzas were used today, with the wet and intermediate as well as hard and soft dry slick tyres all seeing track action.
Toyo has announced that it will use the occasion of the 2010 Goodwood Revival (17-19 September) to launch two new additions to its Proxes tyre range. The motorsport-oriented Proxes T1 Sport and the ultra-high performance Proxes C1S will make their debuts at the show, at which Toyo is the Exclusive Tyre Partner for the first time. Sarah Clavey, Toyo’s senior marketing executive, said: “This is the first year we are exclusive tyre partners for the Goodwood Revival, and what better way to mark the occasion than to launch the new additions of our Proxes range. To launch them at such a prestigious event is a great opportunity for Toyo Tires.”
Michelin contributed to a motor racing milestone during the race at the Hungaroring near Budapest. For the first time since the start of the Le Mans Series in 2004, a round of the competition has been won by an LMP2 prototype. Strakka Racing's Michelin-shod HPD-ARX 01c caused a stir by claiming outright victory. All the LMP1 prototypes entered by Michelin's partners were hit by technical problems, including the Oreca-run Peugeot which was delayed by transmission trouble while leading. The collective rout of the front-runners enabled Michelin's sole LMP2 runner – the Strakka Racing HPD-ARX 01c of Watts/Leventis/Kane – to clinch outright victory.
Motorsport and football sponsorship is commonplace these days, but few tyre makers weigh anchor and take to the seas. Avon Tyres is proving itself no landlubber, however, and is backing an entry in an event many consider to be one of the toughest and most challenging endurance tests in ocean racing, the Sevenstar Round Britain & Ireland Race. Charles Ivill, the managing director of ETB (Exhaust Tyres and Batteries Ltd), and his crew of ten are taking on the challenge, which commences on August 23. Ivill and crew will be pitting their nautical talents against an international fleet of 30 yachts.
You’re only showing your age if images of vagrants or dossers spring to mind upon hearing the word ‘drifter’. These days, as any fule kno, a drifter is far more likely to be a tyre maker and dealer’s favourite customer. Drifting has long since left its home in Japan and set out to conquer the globe, and the top drifters in our part of the world compete in the Pirelli European Drift Championship. And with just one round to go, this year’s championship title is Mark Luney’s to lose. He needs just three points at Snetterton to assure him of overall victory.
Two days of Formula One tyre testing concluded on August 18, and Pirelli discloses the purpose of this first test was to begin the process of determining the front and rear tyre profile and construction that will be used as the basis of its new PZero Formula One tyre. Driver Nick Heidfeld spent the two days behind the wheel of a Toyota TF109 in predominately dry and sunny conditions at the Mugello circuit in Italy. Fitted to the Toyota F1 car were sample prototype versions of the new PZero.
Nick Heidfeld, who is busy testing tyres as part of Pirelli’s Formula One development programme, has thanked the Mercedes racing team for releasing him from his contract so he could carry out this work. “It’s a great privilege for me to join Pirelli in order to carry out this vital work and I am very grateful to Mercedes GP Petronas for releasing me from my contract to take on this role,” he said. “Through the experience I have built up over the years, I’m confident that I will be able to provide Pirelli with some important feedback regarding the development of next year’s tyres. I’ve got a lot to give but I haven’t been driving so much this year, so it is good to get started. Together, I’m sure that we can create a dynamic range of tyres that will make Formula One an even more exciting sport in the future.”
Former BMW Sauber driver Nick Heidfeld appears to have been given the permanent job of Formula One tyre tester for Pirelli, as motorsport news sources report that he took to the Mugello Circuit near Florence in the manufacturer’s home country. Heidfeld will pilot the 2009 Toyota TF109 around the Italian circuit over the next two days, while reports suggest the tyre-maker is to travel to the Jerez, Monza and Paul Ricard circuits too as Pirelli readies its rubber for the start of the 2011 season when it takes over from Bridgestone as F1’s exclusive tyre supplier.
The road legal descendent of Dunlop’s successful D211 GP motorcycle race tyre has been making waves since its introduction in late 2009, report Goodyear Dunlop representatives. “Echoing the success of the D211 GP race tyre,” states Dunlop, the GP Racer D211 has been adopted both on track days and by one-make national championships across the globe in 2010. As mid-season passes, the tyre is being run in the PromoSport Cup and the WERC series in France, the Yamaha R6 Cup in Germany, the Italian Superstock 600 championship, the Dubai 600 and 1000 Superstock Championships and the Ducati 848 Cup and Harley Davidson Cup in the UK. In Australia, the slick version (GP Racer D211 Slick) is used for the National Superbike Championship.
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