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.
At a meeting of the Pirelli & C. SpA Board of Directors on 21 October, Claudio Sposito and Paolo Fiorentino were co-opted as members to replace Vittorio Malacalza and Giulia Maria Ligresti, whose resignations from the board were announced on 10 May and 24 July respectively. The vacancy following the 16 October resignation of Carlo Salvatori remains open for the time being.
Pirelli has launched two fitments for the recently launched Alfa Romeo 4C. The new 4C lapped the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 8:04 on the P Zero Trofeo tyres – a new Alfa Romeo record – which were developed in less than a year of intense work between Pirelli and Alfa Romeo engineers. The car has the option of fitting 17” on the front and 18” on the back, or 18” on the front and 19” on the back.
Pirelli & C. Spa has announced the resignation of Carlo Salvatori from the company’s Board of Directors. The company thanked Salvatori for his contribution, adding that he explained when resigning that it was “due to the recent increase in the number of his professional commitments.”
Pirelli has launched a new initiative based around the operating temperature of winter tyres. Customers who purchase the manufacturer’s winter products are being offered a 50 per cent refund should the average UK daily temperature remain higher than seven degrees Celsius for more than 30 days between 1 January 2014 and 28 February 2014.
As part of its efforts to promote, sponsor, and support cultural projects in Italy and around the world, Pirelli has established the ‘Pirelli Visiting Professorship in Italian Studies’ for a five-year term at Princeton University’s Department of French and Italian at Princeton University. The professorship’s stated aim is to support the dissemination of the study of Italian history and culture through new media and technology within Italian studies.
Alex Lowes and Shane Byrne left Silverstone with only a point separating them in the MCE British Superbike Championship going into the Brands Hatch finale. Pirelli, the tyre supplier of the series, declared itself particularly pleased with the longevity of the new for 2013 Diablo Superbike SC1 rear soft tyre during the weekend, while anticipating an exciting final round on 18-20 October.
Pirelli has won the contract to supply original equipment tyres to the new Ducati 899 Panigale, launched at Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola. The Italian tyre supplier said that the launch of the younger sister of the 1199 Panigale represented a good opportunity for Pirelli to confirm its leadership in the top range segment, in addition to continuing the strong technological partnership with the Borgo Panigale-based manufacturer.
Paul Hembery has given the strongest indication yet of a longer term future in Formula One for tyre supplier Pirelli. While there had been speculation that the manufacturer had secured the supply deal for 2014 only, the company’s Motorsport director told reporters at the Korean grand prix that the exclusive tyre supplier is “working on five years”, meaning Pirelli would be in the series until at least the end of the 2018 season.
Osian Pryce won the Trackrod Yorkshire Rally, round five of the British Rally Championship, following a three-way battle that took the event to the final stage. Pirelli, on whose tyres the BRC is competed, said that the rally matched last year’s corresponding event, which staged one of the championship’s closest finishes, for excitement. The manufacturer’s supported Pirelli Star Driver Mark Donelly helped make the event for Pirelli, driving a mature rally to bring his Pirelli-backed Citroen DS3 R3T home in fifth. Meanwhile championship leader Jukka Korhonen – a former Pirelli Star Driver himself – looks likely to clinch the title in the Dorset and Hampshire forests, where the six-round series concludes with Rallye Sunseeker International (18-19 October).
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.
This year, German motoring organsiation the ADAC got together with its Austrian and Swiss counterparts, the ÖAMTC and TCS, to produce its winter tyre test. Two sizes – 185/60 R15 T and 225/45 R17 H – were tested, and in both size categories Continental and Michelin received a “good” recommendation with their ContiWinterContact TS 850 and Alpin A4. Four products were rated “inadequate” by the testers.
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.
In the September issue of German publication Auto Motor und Sport (20/2013), eight brands of winter tyre were put through their paces. Seven types of size 225/50 R17 V tyre and a set of Michelin 225/50 R17 H tyres were fitted to a BMW 330d for the test and subject to handling and braking tests in snow, wet and dry conditions, along with condition-specific tests such as aquaplaning, traction, comfort, rolling noise and rolling resistance. Here is what Auto Motor und Sport found out:
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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