Known for its style, speed and performance marketing values, Pirelli & C. S.p.A. is a multinational company based in Milan, Italy, listed on the Milan Stock Exchange since 1922, with a temporary privatization period by the consortium led by the Chinese state-owned enterprise ChemChina.
With two new winter tyres for 2012, Pirelli is enthusiastically promoting the benefits of fitting specialist cold weather tyres in the UK. Joining the Italian manufacturer’s Sottozero Serie II high performance winter tyre are the recently introduced Winter SnowcontrolSerie 3, designed for smaller cars, and the Scorpion Winter SUV tyre, which was displayed at Reifen 2012, and replaces the Scorpion Ice.
The winners of a silent auction enjoyed a trip to the Formula One in Monza last weekend where the prize winners received paddock passes and hospitality courtesy of Italian tyre firm Pirelli. The auction was held in July at Evolution in Battersea as part of Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity’s annual Formula One party. Pirelli donated two paddock passes to the individual who placed the highest bid on the night.
World Rally Championship tyre supplier, Dmack is rolling out its passenger car and commercial tyre ranges this year, and the brand has received something of a boost in becoming one of the first Chinese tyre manufacturers to achieve an A rating in wet grip for one of its passenger car tyre products. Manufactured by Shandong Yongtai and designed and developed from the brand’s base in the north-west of England, the brand says it has achieved the rating with a concept version of its Kinetic S high performance tyre, which was launched in May this year. Dmack said the concept version of the tyre has been produced “to demonstrate the high levels of expertise that lie within the business”.
Guglielmo Fiocchi has left Pirelli for another Italian automotive supplier, Sogefi SpA, which has appointed him as general manager of the company. Fiocchi, who is 49, graduated in aeronautical engineering from the Milan Politecnico and brings long term experience in the automotive component sector.
Lewis Hamilton recorded McLaren’s third consecutive win this year at the Italian Grand Prix, adopting a one-stop strategy to claim victory from Sauber’s Sergio Perez, who started from 12th on the grid, and used a different one-stop strategy to dazzling effect. Pirelli’s P Zero Silver hard tyre and P Zero White medium were the compounds available at Monza, and the two hardest tyres in the Formula One range showed good performance and durability. Hamilton ran 30 laps on the hard tyre at the end of the race, while the speed of the medium tyre – which Perez used for his 24-lap final stint – enabled him to lap more than two seconds faster than his closest rivals at one point.
Pirelli has launched a new initiative in collaboration with its Pirelli Performance Centres (PPCs). Open to those purchasing two or more premium Pirelli tyres, customers will be entered into a prize draw to win a grandstand ticket for next year’s British Grand Prix, as well as a tour of Red Bull Racing in Milton Keynes and exclusive Pirelli clothing. The promotion runs at the UK and Ireland’s 85 PPCs throughout the months of September and October.
The Italian Grand Prix takes place this weekend (7-9 September, 2012) in Monza, following swiftly behind the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, and Pirelli returns to its home nation with the same P Zero White and Silver tyres it used in the previous meeting. Monza is the fastest circuit on the Formula One calendar, and puts similarly high energy loading through the tyres as at Spa. Pirelli, which knows the circuit well since the Autodromo Nazionale is situated half an hour’s drive from the company’s Milan headquarters. Pirelli highlights the first chicane, characterised by heavy downhill braking; the Ascari curves, with their several rapid direction changes; and the famous Parabolica, a wide, open radius corner that puts a lot of lateral stress through the tyres as being the most challenging areas for its rubber. Pirelli says these sections, coupled with some of the season’s fastest straights, mean tyre temperatures can peak at up to 130°C and choosing the right tyre for the conditions will be important.
While no-one in the tyre industry claims to have bypassed the combined effects of the credit crunch, euro-crisis and the consequent recession(s), it is fair to say that these economic phenomena have had particularly marked effects on the commercial vehicle tyre market. First of all, as a direct result of customer demand scaling back, truck makers cut down on vehicle production, with the tyre manufacturers responsible for supplying these OEMs forced to follow suit. As fleets responded to falling demand for their services and extended the life of their tyres as far as possible (as well laying up trailers and cannibalising tyres whenever they could), what began as a demand shock in the OE side of the business developed into a replacement slump as well.
Pirelli has upgraded its Apple and Android Diablo Super Biker app, allowing routes travelled to be downloaded and viewed directly on computers and tablets. This, the company says, will make it easy to compare them and facilitate sharing on social networks. The upgrade represents a continuation of the company’s digital and social media strategy. The app has been downloaded more than 100,000 times, averaging 328 downloads per day in the last two months, the company says. The Pirelli Moto Facebook page, launched at the beginning of 2012, has grown to more than 140,000 fans. The Italian manufacturer believes increased social networking leads to greater proactive interaction from customers and end-users on a daily basis.
McLaren’s Jenson Button completed a dominant weekend to win the Belgian Grand Prix. Only second-placed Sebastian Vettel could match the Briton’s ability to look after his tyres, using an almost identical one-stop strategy – medium compound P Zero White tyres, changed to hard compound P Zero Silvers just before the midway point – to finish 13 seconds behind Button, who led from start to finish. This was the first race at which a driver has achieved this in 2012 While Button’s imperious drive would have taken some beating, Vettel’s ascent from tenth on the grid was aided by a spectacular smash involving Championship leader Fernando Alonso and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton at the first corner, over which Lotus’s Romain Grosjean has been handed a one-race ban.
The route between Pirelli’s UK facilities in Burton-on-Trent and Carlisle is well trodden by Derby-based haulier ATL, and the company has just put three of its newest vehicle acquisitions to work on the company’s most arduous contract. The Mercedes-Benz Axor 2543 tractor units are consistently fully laden and rack up 8,600km a week carrying raw materials and finished tyres between Pirelli’s locations.
Riders competing in the 2013 Australian Superbike Championships will have the choice of racing on Pirelli, Michelin or Dunlop tyres as series organiser, International Entertainment Group (IEG), has decided to end the practice of using a control tyre for all but one competition class. IEG will also place a cap on the number of tyres that can be used and the price of tyres, a measure it says will ensure costs are kept to a minimum for all participants.
According to Pirelli, the new Scorpion Winter tyre, designed for high-performance SUVs and crossover vehicles, features improved safety under braking and cornering while offering “the same standards of comfort, reliability and handling that was previously only available on sports cars.”
Oak Tyres has expanded into a new larger head office and warehousing complex in Haydock, Merseyside following recent growth. According to Oak’s finance director Andrew Burgess, the company’s 2010 accounts record annual sales of just over £30 million, a figure that has now grown to £50 million a year.
During an interview with a Brazilian publication, Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery expressed his frustration at the lack of cooperation Formula One teams have provided the tyre maker. Hembery told TotalRace that the small operating window of this season’s tyres could have been avoided had the teams agreed to give Pirelli use of a current race vehicle for testing.
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