THE TYRE WAR IS ON
BEHIND THE ORECA VERSUS Ligier versus Dallara battle, the tyre war between Dunlop and Michelin is often considered little more than a footnote. Dunlop’s podium sweep suggests it was on relatively comfortable ground, but dig a little deeper and Michelin can take away plenty of encouragement.
It locked out the front row with Paul-loup Chatin (IDEC Sport ORECA) and Nathanael Berthon (Dragonspeed ORECA). And while their challenges petered out – Dragonspeed’s in abrupt fashion when Berthon lost a wheel at Arnage in the second hour – there could be no disputing that Michelin’s new range was much closer to Dunlop than has been the case in recent years.
“We did already a strong design last year where the step was really strong, we had a good consistency but we still needed to have more performance, especially one-lap performance in qualifying,” said Michelin endurance programme manager Jerome Mondain. “So the aim this year was to get the qualifying much stronger, but without any drawback with consistency.”
That they succeeded is supported by Berthon claiming fastest lap with a 3m27.2s shortly before 7am. The Michelin-shod Panisbarthez Ligier that ran second before it was delayed by clutch problems also dipped under 3m28s with
Will Stevens on board.
“We had no issues on tyres at all,” said Stevens. “I did all quad stints, my first stint was on all the same tyres and then after that we pretty much did two new on the left most times after two stints.”
For its part, Dunlop was pleased with its new specifications, and welcomed the increased challenge posed by Michelin.
“It’s what we expected,” said Dunlop motorsport communications director James Bailey. “We have a strong competitor, they push us, and that’s the reason why every tyre that we’ve brought this year is brand new.
“Despite the fact that we won every WEC race last year on the Dunlop, every one of those tyres has been replaced, which shows how seriously we take the tyre war.”
With tyre specifications frozen for the superseason and the 2019 European Le Mans Series, the lessons learned at Le Mans won’t be applied until the 2019-20 superseason, but LMP2’S other manufacturer battle will continue to be an intriguing subplot.