The chairman of the
Pirelli Group, Marco Tronchetti Provera, and Pirelli
Tyre’s managing director, Francesco Gori have outlined the company’s plans for supplying tyres to Formula One for the three-year period
of the new contract that runs between
2011-2013.
Pirelli came into the picture as the only serious
candidate after F1's current sole tyre supplier, Japan's
Bridgestone, announced it would pull out at the end of
this season and the only other serious contender for the
contract on offer, Michelin, declined to tender a bid
after its demand for the cars to use bigger 18-inch
wheels and lower profile tyres was rejected by F1's
organisers. Michelin, which has a company philosophy of
pitting itself on the racetracks directly up against its
rivals, was also more enthusiastic about a non-exclusive
deal that would bring back the "tyre wars" of the past.
For Pirelli this contract adds to its exclusive deals
with the World Rally Championship, Grand American Sports
Car Series and World Superbike Championship.
The
Pirelli’s programme includes the creation of a dedicated
team for the development and production of Formula One
tyres. The team of internal Pirelli human resources,
will be made up of engineers and researchers who have
accumulated experience at the highest levels of
motorsport: creating winning products for rallying,
Superbike, the Rolex Sports Car Series in North America
and GT racing, as well as various one-make series. This
Pirelli hopes will ensure that the other divisions of the company remain
focused on the ongoing business.
In order to meet the
Formula One teams’ requirements in terms of reliability,
safety and performance, Pirelli’s engineers are already
working on simulation models and tyre compounds that
will be most suited to the rigours of Grand Prix racing.
The Pirelli Formula
One team will be an international group of people based
in Milan, the home of Pirelli Tyre’s research and
development department. This division has traditionally
been at the heart of Pirelli’s cutting-edge technology
and is formed of 1000 research engineers, working in
five development centres all over the world. Pirelli
Tyre allocates each year between 3 and 4 percent of its
revenues, the highest level in the tyre industry
worldwide, to research. Motorsport activities have
benefited for many years from the innovations introduced
to high-performance tyres by Pirelli’s Research and
Development.
The Formula One tyres
will be produced in the motorsport department of
Pirelli’s Izmit factory in Turkey, which is entirely
dedicated to competition tyres.
As established by the
FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile), the
Pirelli Formula 1 supply agreement includes development
of six different types of tyre for the whole season.
Four of these will be slick tyres – with different
compounds to suit various dry asphalt surfaces – and one
will be a rain tyre, for heavy precipitation. Finally
there will be an intermediate tyre, for damp conditions
and light rain.
In co-operation with
the teams, Pirelli says it is also ready to develop technical
evolutions to the current tyres for the future,
regarding in particular the wheel size.
Today’s economic
climate has enforced a realistic and collaborative
approach to share out the production and logistical
costs associated with supplying tyres to Formula One
teams fairly, says Pirelli, adding that it will also invest in communications
activities to leverage the technological and production
values associated with Formula One, utilising resources
and budget that have already been set aside for this
specific purpose. Formula One will become an important
showcase for the Pirelli brand along with its commercial
and industrial growth, without impacting on the
company’s existing financial strategy in any way. In the coming years,
Formula One is expected to attract around two billion
television viewers per season, according to a statement
from Pirelli, with important media
coverage in emerging markets as well. Pirelli also
reckons that it’s business
development and growth strategy, which is concentrated
in these areas, will benefit hugely from the global
visibility offered by Formula One, helping to promote
the brand and maximise return on the marketing
investment.
