Pirelli tired of having too many colours
During the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix over the weekend, tire maker Pirelli revealed its updated line of tires for Formula One racing. It will continue to provide tires in F1 racing, inking a four-year deal from 2020 to 2023 as it retains its partnership which was up for renewal at the end of 2019.
The tire giant also announced it will cut back on the nine colours on its F1 tires which determined the various compounds used in racing situations. Going forward there will only be three colours, but the range of up to six compounds will continue.
“We wanted to eliminate the rainbow as we had too many colours, so we wanted to have just three,” said Pirelli’s racing director Mario Isola about the multihued tires. He added the tire names depicting the compounds will be replaced by a series of codes. For 2018, the names and colours ranged from the softest pink-walled “hypersoft” offering maximum grip though to the orange-walled “superhard” compound offering the least grip.
Pirelli has been the official F1 tire supplier since 2011, a common trend in all types of racing where tire makers work out exclusive deals with the various race sanctions. It appears the tire wars of the past are gone.
In F1, as in NASCAR and IndyCar, and many other race series, there have been battles between tire companies to supply a series. Not only is a single-brand tire in a series well-placed marketing, this brand identity filters down to the conciseness of the fans who ultimately buy the same brand for their own personal cars.
For example, Pirelli was the winning tire for F1 racing in its early years, scoring more wins between 1950 and 1954. In 1954, there were six tire makers in F1, but Dunlop was the tire to have between 1958 and 1965, amassing most of the victories with makers such as Continental and Englebert picking up sporadic wins.
In the next few years Goodyear and Firestone dominated the win column, then Goodyear dominated from 1973 to 1980. French maker Michelin introduced its F1 tire in 1981 and took 13 wins with its previously scoffed-at radial technology. By 1985, Goodyear came back with its radial Eagle series and won just about every Grand Prix until 1997.
From 1998 until 2004 Bridgestone was the series tire, but Michelin was still a threat, and the two makers swapped the yearly titles until 2006. Then a single tire maker was chosen, and all race cars have been shod with the same tires since that time, Bridgestone from 2007-2010, and Pirellis from then on.
There were tires wars in NASCAR’s early years as well. Its top series, Cup racing, stared with Firestones in the early 1950s, and Goodyear entered the series with a line of police car tires when it saw that NASCAR’s popularity was increasing. The two giants fought it out for the next two decades developing race-only tires.
Firestone pulled out in 1974, and Goodyear was alone on the NASCAR tracks until 1987 when specialty race tire maker Hoosier tried its hand. But by 1990, NASCAR and Goodyear would be the sole tire supplier, and this partnership continues today.
The first Indy 500 of 1911 was won with Firestone tires, and its dominance in the race matched that of the Offenhauser engine at the Brickyard. For literally decades the 500 winners would be powered by an Offy engine and shod with Firestone tires.
This monopoly started to shatter in the early 1960s. F1 champ Jack Brabham showed up at Indy with his rear-engined Formula car and Dunlop tires to try and take on the Offy-powered roadsters.
Brabham didn’t win, but in 1963 the great Jim Clark showed the establishment the future of Indy racing with his Colin Chapman Lotus, and after a couple of stumbles, the Ford-powered car of Clark won the 1965 Indy with Firestones.
But Goodyear, which had been out of the series for 40 years, returned as the partner tire, and its tires were shod on all entries from 1967 until 2000.
Firestone returned to Indy at the turn of the century and continues as the sole tire supplier.
These multi-million dollar deals have provided a much safer race car over the years, no matter what venue of motorsport.
And this progressive competitive technology has also provided a safer tire for all of us with our regular street vehicles.