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.
Pirelli’s SC1 Diablo Superbike tyre showed impressive durability at Cadwell Park over the weekend, as Josh Brookes set the fastest race lap of the weekend on the penultimate lap of the second race in a time of 1:27.422 with the track temperature nearing 40 degrees. Meanwhile Alex Lowes took a brace of victories in front of his home crowd to take Brookes’ second place in the Championship behind Shane Byrne.
In a statement responding to the outcome of the HSE-prosecuted case against Pirelli Tyres Ltd, in which Carlisle Magistrates’ Court handed the tyre maker a £20,000 plus costs fine, Pirelli has expressed sympathy to the injured worker and summarised its position towards work and safety within its plants.
More than a year and a half after the event took place, Carlisle Magistrates’ Court has heard the case of a worker injury at the nearby Pirelli plant. The case was brought to court by the Health and Safety Executive, which prosecuted Pirelli Tyres Ltd after an investigation found that the safety procedures for carrying out maintenance work on the machine were poor.
Former Formula One racer Jean Alesi has emphasised the importance of tyre management at the Belgian grand prix. Held at one of the quickest circuits of the season in Spa-Francorchamps, Pirelli’s brand ambassador said that the number of fast corners, combined with the length of the track and variable weather could mean that the tyres cool during the latter stages of the lap, making achieving even performance throughout the lap difficult. The exclusive tyre supplier is bringing the P Zero Orange hard and P Zero White medium tyres, the two hardest compounds in the range, to Spa – an allocation that Pirelli says is “perfectly suited” to the high-energy demands of the circuit. Inclement weather could bring the Cinturato Green intermediate and Cinturato Blue wet tyres into play too.
Work on the Indonesian joint venture motorcycle factory part owned by Pirelli is underway following the recent groundbreaking ceremony in Subang, West Java. The Italian tyre maker is 60 per cent shareholder in the PT Evoluzione Tyres (Evoty) joint venture, with Indonesia’s PT Astra Otoparts Tbk holding the remaining 40 per cent.
On 15 August, tyrepress.com reported that fashion photographers Peter Lindbergh and Patrick Demarchelier have been commissioned to photograph Pirelli’s 50th anniversary Calendar. We almost got it right, too – the duo is indeed working with Pirelli to produce a special golden anniversary Calendar photo series, but this project is quite separate from the 2014 Calendar.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has told Autosport.com he’s proud the team “had the balls” to stand by the criticisms it leveled against the performance of Pirelli’s 2013 Formula One tyres. The negative feedback from Red Bull Racing and company chief Dietrich Mateschitz regarding the tyres’ rapid degradation earlier in the season was dismissed by some competitors as complaints prompted by the team’s own struggles with the tyres – but Horner thinks other teams felt as Red Bull did, only they chose to be less forthright.
Few calendars command media attention like Pirelli’s, and next year marks the 50th anniversary of the first edition. Preview photos taken during production of the 2014 calendar are now doing the rounds, and this peek at next year’s ‘Cal’ suggests Pirelli has decided to continue the more conservative approach photographer Steve McCurry adopted for the 2013 Calendar.
Pirelli supplied three separate winners with its softer compound Superbike SC1 slick tyres on front and rear in a dramatic trio of Oulton Superbike races. BSB legend Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne took a historic 50th series win, while Josh Brookes and Alex Lowes also booked their places in the coveted Showdown, reserved for the top six riders to battle for the title. Pirelli racing manager Jason Griffiths commented: “We witnessed some fantastic racing over the weekend here at Oulton Park which produced three worthy winners. The crowd and TV viewers were certainly treated to some of the best racing I’ve seen and it was also great to again see five manufacturers in the top five at times. From our point of view it was fantastic to see race fastest laps logged so late in the races, again proving the performance and durability of the soft compound Superbike Diablo slicks.”
Pirelli will gain a controlling share of the Kirov and Voronezh tyre factories in Russia by increasing its stake in the joint venture it operates with Russian corporation Rostec and financial group GHP. The tyre maker will repurchase from GHP 15 per cent of shares from the package that used to belong to Fleming Family & Partners, thus increasing its share to 65 per cent.
On 1 August, Andreas Penkert, former CEO and director of Continental India Ltd, the former Modi Tyres operation acquired in 2011, has taken over leadership of sales and marketing for Pirelli in Germany. In his new role Penkert reports to Pirelli Deutschland GmbH CEO Michael Schwöbel and Pirelli tyre S.p.A. Central Europe CEO Daniele Deambrogio.
Pirelli’s motorsport director has described the absence of a tyre supply contract for next year’s Formula One championship as a “most bizarre situation.” The company’s three-year contract ends at the end of the current season and as a new deal has not been struck it must go ahead with plans for next year without any guarantee that it’ll be selected as tyre supplier.
The MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship is set for the first ‘triple-header’ of the season this weekend as the paddock returns to Oulton Park in Cheshire for the second time this season, and with showers forecast the Pirelli Diablo Rain tyre may get its first 2013 in-race use. The weekend also sees races from the both the Pirelli National Superstock 1000 and 600 Championships and the Ducati TriOptions 848 Challenge taking place, with every competitor using the Diablo Supercorsa SC V2 control tyre.
Last month, Pirelli announced its production of a quieter tyre for original equipment customer Audi, but it hasn’t been the only tyre maker working on noise reduction solutions with its customer; the German car maker has also developed a very similar product with another major tyre supplier, Continental.
Announcing its results for the first half of 2013, Pirelli has shown a year on year 6.1 per cent reduction in earnings before interest and taxes compared with the first half of 2012. This occurred in spite of a second quarter in which the manufacturer saw signs of improvement, with revenues climbing 8.8 per cent on 2Q 2012 following a 1.3 per cent YoY reduction in the first three months of the year. However, net profit for the quarter was also some way off that of the 94.9 million euro achieved in 2012, at 78 million euro.
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