The presence of tyre companies at motorsports are a marketing necessity. On the other hand, it is not a goal as such, but is more of a challenge given to the technological progress.
Sporting Successes as a Tool
The tyre industry from its very inception is accompanied by competition on race tracks and rally routes. Participation and success in major sports competitions is for each brand, a part of the strategy to build its prestige and reputation - if the tyres from Bridgestone, Pirelli, Michelin, Dunlop and Goodyear are fitted to Formula 1 race car (each of these brands had a significant appearance in the history of F1), this means that its producers are able to produce tyres good enough for the top racing league. And this, in turn, has to be reflected in measurable quality of products for ordinary drivers.
This logical sequence is the foundation of every advertising campaign, in which the tyre company shows off its links with motorsport – apart from Formula 1, this also applies to other famous race cycles, various forms of rally competitions, as well as the newer disciplines such as drifting or gymkhana, popularised by Ken Block. Bear in mind, that sporting success for the tyre manufacturers is and should be primarily a tool, a mechanism necessary to improve their technological capabilities. Each company’s engineer would confirm that - after all, no meaningful brand is producing mainly extreme-performance tyres; they make tyres for drivers without a license to race. And one more obvious truth: on the civil tyres, they earn money, but for the high-performance tyres, they have to subsidise. This is the same as any other advertising campaign.
Major tyre manufacturers have been present in motorsports from the very beginning.
The Development of Science and Technology Matters
Mieczyslaw Hermaszewski, the only Pole to fly into space, shared in one of his interviews an interesting reflection on extraterrestrial expeditions with an audience. "Flying to the moon or to Mars is never the goal in itself. The achievement of Americans who landed on the moon were not kilos of stones, which brought them to Earth, but the development of science, the development of digital technology, computing, the development of medicine, communications, management"- said Hermaszewski.
Translating this interesting thought to the realities of the tyre market, it should be noted that this market has always benefited and relied on the needs of the motorsport industry. After all, one of the first innovations of Michelin – an easily removable pneumatic tyre, patented in 1891, before it became widespread on the road, was used, moreover with great success in pioneering automobile and bicycle races. Another ground-breaking invention of the French brand – a low pressure tyre called "Comfort" went first to the Le Mans racetrack and only after the great sporting success; it was presented on the Paris Motor Show.
There is no better test for tyres than participation in the race.
Road Laboratory
“Racing is the ultimate proving ground for our tyre technologies, and it helps our company develop and test improvements to the fundamental materials we use to build our tyres for everyday driving,”- said Mike Martini, President, original equipment, U.S. and Canada Consumer Tyre Sales Divisions at Bridgestone. This was said on the occasion of the hundredth Indianapolis 500 race, with which the Firestone brand, owned by the Japanese company, has been associated with for a century.
“The extreme conditions of racing push tyres to their ultimate limits, and we are able to use that data to engineer more advanced, more innovative consumer tyre solutions that meet the needs of automakers and drivers” - added Martini.
For Bridgestone, the best example of a sports program and road tyre technology development collaboration is the Potenza model. It was developed in the early 90’s for the Supercar Series competition organised by the International Motor Sports Association. The knowledge gained on the track resulted in the creation of the most advanced ultra-high performance tyre. Thanks to the races, the company has also conducted research on mitigating the effects of high temperatures while driving - when a race car pulls into the pits, the rubber heats up to 200 degrees Celsius. This technology was used later to the advantage ofBridgestone in the production of tyres such as run-flat.
Accurate measurements of tyre’s working conditions are crucial for their further development
Technology Transfers in Both Directions
When nearly 10 years ago, Goodyear celebrated the premiere of the high performance model - Eagle F1 Asymmetric, it was emphasised that for the first time on such a scale, in the "civilian" tyre was used a technology transferred directly from the racetrack. Primarily, it concerned the materials, as well as the tyre structure which would assist in dispersing the temperature rising during friction and the improvement in cornering grip. As Bob Toth, Goodyear's Marketing Manager explained, advanced technologies are developing faster in motorsports than in traditional environment, as engineers in the racing programs have to work faster. "As a result, the tracks tend to be a kind of public laboratory" - remarked Toth.
Another thing, as experts say, is that in recent years, the differences between the sport and the road tyres have significantly decreased. Four years ago, Dunlop presented the Sport BluResponse tyre– to the world – its presentation overlapped with the debut of the racing version during the aforementioned 24-hour Le Mans contest. The most important improvement in this model was the fuel efficiency impact and wet surface grip. A particular challenge was to reduce fuel consumption and impact on the economy of driving - an invaluable factor in endurance races.
Interestingly, in this area, the technology transfer does not always work in one direction. It means, there are cases in which innovations developed for the occasion of the construction of road tyres hit the racetracks. The most famous one is related with the historical invention of Michelin – the radial tyres. Two years before the drivers were competing on them in the Le Mans race in 1951, they were fitted on Citroens, Renaults Peugeots of ordinary Frenchmen.