Michelin’s challenge
It’s been a busy year for the tyre firm after Rally GB threw a shock result last season
The unexpected result of last year’s Rally GB forced Michelin’s hand. A car shod with rival, softer DMACK tyres had finished at the top of the pile. Michelin had to respond, and it did just that by constructing an all-new tyre to avoid any form of Elfyn Evansstyle triumph from being repeated. After all, his win 12 months ago ended Michelin’s perfect World Rally Championship victory streak, which had started with Mikko Hirvonen’s victory on the Monte Carlo rally in 2010.
Transmitting 380bhp through all four wheels to take a World Rally Car to 60mph from rest – no matter how unruly the surface may be – in less than four seconds is all part of the brief for building the WRC tyre. So too is supporting the 1400kg weight as it bounces down the pitted gravel roads that make up Rally Cyprus. And, when it comes round to
Sweden, each car requires 1536 20mm tungsten and steel studs to claw into the ice and snow to find traction. Yet it was the Welsh forests that managed to twist the plot.
So specific are the conditions of the Rally GB roads that Michelin has now tailored its approach especially for the likes of Dyfi and Dyfnant. Current tyre regulations stipulate one tread pattern for gravel and, before the summer, that tyre came in just two compounds: hard and soft. Now it has a third as the firm tries to ward off another potential upset.
Michelin’s WRC manager Arnaud Remy says: “Rally GB is so different from the others; when it’s wet it can be really wet and very muddy and this is one of the reasons that we decided to design and build this new compound of tyre.
When we designed it we had Wales in mind.”
The new tyre, codenamed LTX Force S6, actually made its debut in Finland – not that you’d have noticed because nobody used it. Although they were intended to fit the rally’s looser surfaces, the higher temperatures ruled out that strategy.
As the rally’s winner Ott Tanak explains: “It was too hot in Finland for this tyre. We tested it a little bit, but it’s hard to see how good it was in those conditions.”
The softer boot was never going to see the light of day on a sweltering and rock-hard Rally Turkey last time out, but Tanak drove the new compound in meaningful conditions last week.
“I had two days’ testing in Wales,” he says. “The first day was not so wet, but the second day was wet and muddy and the soft tyre worked well. It’s definitely a good option tyre, but we’ll have to see if it’s wet and muddy enough for a complete loop to use it.”
Michelin’s prime tyre for this week will be the medium M6; loosely speaking it’s the old soft tyre with a bit of a tweak. Each crew has an allocation of 28 M6s and 16 S6s – a maximum of 28 tyres can be used during the event.
“When it’s hot in Wales we have seen that it can be very abrasive for the tyre,” Remy continues. “If it’s warm and dry it could be quite complicated – but we don’t think that we
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Carlo “For or us, Finland. this rally It’s is a so unique important,” challenge he says. with “It’s the weather, like Monte the conditions and the gravel – a real challenge for the tyre.
But it’s always a joke that when we go to this rally, nobody forgets to take the big boots and the umbrella.”
Monte Carlo is frequently thought of as the trickiest event from a tyre management perspective. But this week could be just as complicated in Wales. If the sun stays, that will rule out use of the soft tyre. But, just as you know that ice will surely feature during round one of the season, it’s almost as surefire that we’ll see some precipitation on round 11 this week. When the time comes, picking the soft compound at the key moment could pay off handsomely – providing you can get it through the loop (the longest of which is Saturday morning at 49 miles).
After all of Michelin’s effort in the intervening year, its new soft tyre has opened up a window of opportunity on Rally GB. It’s now left to the crews to decide whether it’ll be worth the gamble.
“WHEN WE DESIGNED OUR NEW TYRE COMPOUND, WE HAD WALES IN MIND”
MICHELIN WRC MANAGER ARNAUD REMY