ERJ Round-up: Racing Rubber

ERJ staff report (TP)

Weekly round-up from the world of racing – reports on Kumho ... Michelin ... Pirelli

The 16 year-old Dutch motor racing driver Max Verstappen was victorious in the 2014 Zandvoort Masters race in July. Former winners of this event include Formula One stars Lewis Hamilton, Nico Hülkenberg, and Max’s father Jos Verstappen, who was victorious in 1993 and subsequently drove in F1 for the Benetton and Tyrrell teams, among others. Jos and Max are the first father and son to both win what is one of Europe’s top single-seater races. Kumho have been the sole tire supplier for this event since 2002 and supplied a full complement of slick and wet tires to the same specification that had proved itself in 2013.

Organisers of the MotoGP World Championship for motorcycles named Michelin as the series’ sole tire supplier starting in 2016, when the series will switch to a 17-inch wheel spec. Michelin will succeed Bridgestone Corp. as the series’ spec tire supplier. Bridgestone disclosed recently it was bowing out of the competition after the 2015 season, ending a 13-year run of being active in motorcycling top racing series. Madrid-based Dorna Sports SL, promoter and organiser of the MotoGP World Championship, which is sanctioned by the Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme, did not disclose the length of its contract with Michelin nor financial terms.

In Formula One, Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo claimed his second career win to maintain his third place in the driver’s championship at the Pirelli-sponsored Hungarian Grand Prix, before the annual summer break. Ricciardo used a three stop strategy running the whole race on the P Zero Yellow soft tire after having started on the Cinturato Green intermediate. Fernando Alonso in his Ferrari held off his second place against Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton who charged through the field to finish third after having started from the pit lane. Both used a two-stop strategy starting on the intermediates with Hamilton then completing one stint on the soft and his final stint on the medium tire. Alonso just used the soft tire for his final two stints, changing for the second time on lap 38 and thus making the soft tire last for 32 laps.

More to follow ...