Pirellis latest endurance racing tyres put in a perfect performance at the opening round of the new-look FIA GT Series at Nogaro in France over the Easter weekend.
The Italian firm has supplied upgraded tyres to the premier GT series for race cars based on roadgoing supercars this year, using the latest production processes modelled on Formula One and introducing new sizes for front and mid-engined cars.
These are designed to work better with the dynamic characteristics of these vehicles, in accordance with Pirellis philosophy of producing tyres that are tailor-made for the supercars they are fitted to. This dedicated approach has led to Pirelli being acclaimed as the world leader in the Ultra High Performance sector, with P Zero road car tyres nominated as original equipment by all the worlds most prestigious sports car manufacturers.
The traditional Easter weekend race meeting at Nogaro was dominated by extremely variable weather, taking in heavy rain, drizzle, a drying track and also slick tyre conditions over two days.
This meant that the teams had the opportunity to run both the P Zero rain compound (with a deep tread pattern to rapidly disperse water) and the P Zero slick in a wide variety of conditions. Throughout all the sessions, both Pirelli tyres demonstrated the performance, control and durability that they have become famous for. Even when the conditions were marginal, the slick tyres still managed to provide plenty of grip on a slippery track, while the rain tyres demonstrated their ability to expel water rapidly and keep the driver in control at all times. In dry conditions, the slicks also showed impressive durability on an extremely wide range of cars and vehicle configurations: essential for endurance racing.
Sundays qualification race was won by the Sebastien Loeb Racing duo of Alvaro Parente and Sebastien Loeb in a McLaren MP4-12C: the nine-time world rally champion adding a debut race win with Pirelli to his three rally titles sealed with the Italian firm between 2008 and 2010.
The championship race on Monday was clinched by the WRT Audi R8 LMS crew of Frank Stippler and Edward Sandstrom. The team demonstrated its ability to get the most out of the tyres by working closely with Pirellis engineers to find the key to perfect performance around the demanding 3.6-kilometre Nogaro circuit, with its mixture of fast straights and technical corners.
Pirellis senior tyre engineer Matteo Braga, who was on hand to advise all the teams at Nogaro, said: We were pleased with the performance of the tyres this weekend in France, where we displayed perfect reliability and durability. These 2013 GT tyres are a step forward from last years compounds and the mixed weather enabled all the drivers to gain experience of running them in a wide variety of conditions, where they were able to feel the benefit of Pirelli technology even when the track was extremely difficult and slippery. A lot of this is down to the production processes that we use in Formula One, which eventually filter down to the road car product. With the cars in the FIA GT Series being based on those we supply on the road, this is an extremely important championship for Pirelli, which allows us to demonstrate our know-how on some of the most famous and demanding tracks in the world.
The next round of the FIA GT Series takes place at another iconic venue: Zolder in Belgium from April 20-21. Before then, Pirelli will also supply the opening round of the Blancpain Endurance Series at Monza from April 13-14.
