Abu dhabi - 25 Jan 2012 8:54 UTC
The range of tyres has been entirely renewed for the latest
generation of cars, with the aim of encouraging a wider
range of new strategies from the teams and maintaining at
least two pit stops
More angular profiles and softer compounds to compensate
for the new aerodynamic set-ups of the cars
Alongside the p zero slick compounds, on the wet weather
tyres the cinturato name returns, with which pirelli made
its formula one debut in 1951
The colours on the tyre sidewalls have been modified to
make the different compounds more visible
Tyre performance, temperature and pressure data is
available for teams, engineers, and pirelli's researchers
to see in real time - thanks to the very first formula one
tyre virtual database,
designed by the italian firm
Abu Dhabi, 25 January 2012. Pirelli gets
the 2012 Formula One season underway, its second as sole
supplier, by presenting the new range of tyres for the 63rd
FIA World Championship at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu
Dhabi. The key characteristics of the new tyres - developed
by Pirelli together with the teams in response to the
latest aerodynamic regulations regarding blown exhausts -
are: squarer profiles, increased grip, and softer, more
competitive compounds with consistent degradation.
The objective for the 2012 tyres is to ensure entertaining
races that remain unpredictable all the way up to the
chequered flag, with two to three pit stops per race and a
strong emphasis on team strategies. The coloured markings
on the sidewalls now change to become bigger and more
easily recognisable, while the Cinturato name that has
become emblematic in Formula One history returns: the tyre
with which Pirelli raced and won in the 1950s. From 2012,
Cinturato will denote the full wet and intermediate tyres.
Pirelli's Racing Tyre System also returns, with some new
functionality. This is a platform created by Pirelli's
engineers in order to record the behaviour and performance
of each tyre: information that is shared with the teams and
Formula One Management (FOM).
The presentation took place today at an international press
conference hosted by Marco Tronchetti Provera, the
President and CEO of Pirelli, Motorsport Director Paul
Hembery, and Research and Development Director Maurizio
Boiocchi.
Marco Tronchetti Provera said: "After the positive
experience of last year, the teams asked us to continue
providing tyres with the characteristics that contributed
to spectacular races in 2011. And this is what we have
done, optimising the compounds and profiles in order to
guarantee even better and more stable performance, combined
with the deliberate degradation that characterised the P
Zero range from 2011. We're expecting unpredictable races,
with a wide range of strategies and a number of pit stops:
all factors that both competitors and spectators greatly
enjoyed last year. The development work on the new
compounds took place throughout the 2011 season, thanks to
the impressive learning curve and reaction times from our
engineers, who are ready to continue those evolutions
during the season ahead."
New for 2012: more competitive compounds and 'squarer'
tyres
Just as was the case last year, Pirelli will supply the
teams with four slick tyre compounds - supersoft, soft,
medium and hard - along with two types of wet weather tyre
as prescribed by the FIA rules (see separate article). All
the P Zero slick tyres will feature a brand new profile
compared to 2011 and three of them (the soft, medium and
hard) will also have new compounds. The new compounds are
softer, with increased grip, better performance, a longer
performance peak, but an unaltered overall lifespan. Of the
wet weather tyres, only the full wet - the Cinturato Blue -
has changed, while the intermediate tyre, the Cinturato
Green, is unaltered (see separate article).
Also unchanged from last year are some fundamental
characteristics that all six Pirelli tyres have in common:
safety, reliability, structural integrity, driving
precision, and fast yet distinctly different degradation
curves among the assorted compounds. Pirelli's research and
development methodology is the same as well. The design and
testing of the 2012 tyres has benefitted from an on-going
dialogue with teams and drivers, who contributed to the
development of the new P Zero and Cinturato tyres over the
last season. The results of on-track tests have been
integrated with the data from simulation, which is able to
recreate and predict tyre behaviour and performance in all
the circuit and weather conditions of the 20 tracks that
make up the Formula One calendar.
The evolution of the Pirelli tyres for 2012 has also taken
into account the regulation changes introduced by the FIA
regarding blown exhausts. This new measure, which should
result in a reduction of aerodynamic downforce acting on
each tyre, requires a wider and more even contact patch.
This objective has been met by having a less rounded
shoulder on each tyre and using softer compounds, which
produce better grip and more extreme performance. The
performance gap has changed as well between the different
compounds, which all now perform better. During the 2011
season, there was a difference of between 1.2 and 1.8
seconds per lap among the different compounds. This year,
the objective is to reduce that to less than a second:
between six and eight tenths.
The compounds for the new season synthesise and build on
the evolutions already carried out by Pirelli's engineers
on the 2011 tyres. These have been formulated by Pirelli's
Research and Development division in Milan, using the
information obtained when experimental tyres were tested
during free practice at grands prix in Sepang, Montreal,
Silverstone, Nurburgring, Abu Dhabi and Interlagos last
year, as well as the young driver test at Abu Dhabi in
November. These tests used a total of 6,000 tyres, which
covered around 11,000 kilometres. On top of that, Pirelli
carried out five private tests in Istanbul, Barcelona
(twice), Jerez and Monza, driving for 9,000 kilometres.
Pirelli's new Formula One tyres will make their debut at
Jerez on 7 February, at the first official test of the 2012
season.
Racing Tyre System: Pirelli creates a passport for each
tyre.
In order to develop the 2012 tyres, Pirelli's engineers
relied heavily on the Racing Tyre System (RTS): a
computer-based platform able to gather and process the
performance data of every tyre during tests and races. The
Racing Tyre System, developed by Pirelli's Information
Technology department, allows users to monitor the
performance, wear and behaviour of the tyres throughout
every phase of their use. On top of that, the RTS tracks
the life of each tyre from construction to circuit,
updating, in real-time, its use, performance and wear rate.
After each tyre has been made in the Izmit factory - where
all of Pirelli's competition tyres are produced - the RTS
registers the construction data of each tyre as a type of
individual passport. The information on each tyre is built
up as it arrives at a circuit and gets fitted onto a car.
From that point on, the tyre's temperature, pressure and
wear rate are all registered and made immediately available
to Pirelli's engineers on the track, using special tablet
computers, as well as to Pirelli's research division in
Milan and to all the teams. This constitutes a virtual
database that is continually updated, forming the starting
point for analysis of each car's performance and future
development of the tyres (see separate article).
The Cinturato returns: a world champion in the 1950s
The 2012 season marks the return of the Cinturato name to
the pinnacle of world motorsport: a brand that is not only
linked to Formula One but also to the entire industrial
history of tyre manufacture. The Cinturato made its debut
in 1951 on Juan Manuel Fangio's Alfa 159, taking him to
championship victory, and was often seen on the podium
along with another Pirelli tyre: the Stella Bianca, which
was fitted to the Maserati and the Ferrari 375. The
Cinturato competed in Formula One right up to the mid
1950s, after which it became a road car tyre for the most
sporting and technically advanced cars of the day.
The Cinturato tyre really made its name as a benchmark in
the automotive industry throughout the 1960s, when it was
at the forefront of mass motoring.The innovative
technology, developed for the Cinturato in the 1950s, took
its name from the radial belt (or 'cintura', in Italian)
that went all the way around the tyre carcass, initially
made out of textile fibre and later out of metal. This
innovation paved the way for wider tyres that were able to
cope with the higher cornering speeds reached by cars from
the 1960s onwards. Today, as well as denoting Pirelli's wet
weather Formula One tyres, the Cinturato identifies one of
the most successful products in the global tyre industry:
the Cinturato P7, which perfectly illustrates Pirelli's
brand values of performance, safety, durability and
energy-saving.
Pirelli's Formula One team
Pirelli will supply a total of 45,000 tyres for the
entirety of the 2012 Formula One World Championship. The
tyres for the top level of world motorsport will be
produced at Pirelli's dedicated competition facility within
the factory at Izmit, Turkey, which is one of the most
advanced of its kind in the world. Pirelli's engineers have
put in place state-of-the-art machinery and innovative
technologies to make tyres that are perfectly suited to the
demands of grand prix racing (see separate article).
At races and during official tests, the Pirelli F1 team
numbers 50 specialists, from engineers to technicians. Each
Formula One team relies on one dedicated Pirelli engineer,
as well as on the entire squad of technicians and fitters.
Pirelli's F1 team is made up of people who come from all
four corners of the globe, but is based in Milan: Pirelli's
Research and Development headquarters. This department has
always been at the heart of the Pirelli Group's
cutting-edge technology and employs 1,000 researchers,
located in five centres around the world. Motorsport has
consistently been Pirelli's most important research
laboratory, from which the Group has developed some of the
industry-defining innovations in the tyre sector.
The tyre supply agreement to Formula One marks the pinnacle
of Pirelli's presence throughout the world of motorsport,
in which the Italian firm has been involved since 1907 when
it won the Peking-Paris road race. Pirelli is also the
exclusive supplier to some of the world's most important
motorsport championships, both on two and four wheels -
such as the GP2 and GP3 Series and the World Superbike
Championship. On top of this, the Italian firm supplies
more than 70 national and international race and rally
series, having been the exclusive tyre provider to the
World Rally Championship from 2008-2010.
Formula One and sustainability
Following on from the Pirelli Premium strategy, dedicated
to the design of products and solutions that combine the
highest standards of performance and safety with respect
for the environment, the Formula One tyre supply agreement
is also inspired by criteria of environmental
sustainability. In common with all of Pirelli's other
motorsport tyres, heavily aromatic oils have been
eliminated from the P Zero production process. The
industrial processes used in Izmit are based on energy and
water efficiency and the reduction of harmful emissions
like carbon dioxide. Special attention is given to the
re-use of production remnants and used tyres. The waste
handling protocol includes the recycling of used Formula
One tyres for either the generation of new primary material
or energy production.
The total output of the tyres made throughout the 2011
season - 28,600 for races and 6,00 for tests - were all
recycled.
Pirelli's attention to sustainability is also shown by its
recent confirmation in the Dow Jones Sustainability STOXX
and Dow Jones Sustainability World Indices, where the Group
has been the leading company in the 'Autoparts and Tires'
sector for six consecutive years.
Pirelli in the Middle East
Pirelli is among the market leaders in the Middle East, an
area that has witnessed a consistent increase in the Ultra
High Performance sector over the last few years, where
Pirelli leads the way. Pirelli's local headquarters is in
Dubai, importing tyres from Europe from the most
prestigious range in the line-up: the P Zero family. These
have been developed for the most powerful sports cars
currently on sale, such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche,
Aston Martin and Bentley. Pirelli also has a strong
presence in the local market for bus and truck tyres, which
are made at Pirelli's facility in Alexandria, Egypt. The
industrial and logistical hub, located at Izmit in Turkey,
produces tyres for both cars and commercial vehicles and is
also fundamental in servicing Middle Eastern markets.
For further information please contact:
Francescopaolo Tarallo +39 334 684 4307 francescopaolo.tarallo@pirelli.com
Alexandra Schieren +33 607 03 69 03 alexandra.schieren@pirelli.com
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