After the postponement of the season opener due to the coronavirus, the first Formula 1 race of the year will take place this weekend at the Red Bull Ring in Austria. The same event will feature another premiere: Pirelli’s new 18-inch racing tyres will also be used for the first time, but initially only in Formula 2. Their debut in Formula 1 will follow later.
Following the news that The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has appointed ex-Brisa and Bridgestone executive Hakan Bayman as president of Goodyear’s consumer tyre business in Europe, it has emerged that former Goodyear Dunlop UK MD, Erich Fric has been appointed as Goodyear managing director Europe Central. Both appointments are effective 1 July 2020.
As well as providing its retreading partners with the necessary materials to contribute to securing people’s basic needs across Europe and keeping truck rolling, Kraiburg reports that it is also committed to those who fight on the medical “front lines”.
The aim of magazine tyre tests is to inform consumers about product performance, and this is typically quantified in a point score that results in a winner. But the best tyre – for you – is the one that most closely meets your individual priorities and driving style. Recognising this truth, Austrian motorcycling magazine Motorrad Magazin refrained from crowning any particular tyre victor in the test of five enduro tyres published in its current (5/2019) issue.
Pirelli is happy about the “tenth important recognition” its Scorpion Trail II has gained in a comparative test. It says the tyre’s strong performance in the test conducted by Austrian motorcycling publication Motorrad Magazin (issue 5/2019) “confirms its position at the top of the enduro street segment.”
Falken Tyres will support the Audi Nines international freeskiing and snowboarding event as its presenting partner when the event returns in Sölden and Obergurgl-Hochgurgl. Austria. Falken will host twenty corporate guests at the exhilarating snow weekend.
Schrader Performance Sensors, the automotive aftermarket brand of Sensata Technologies, will launch two new motorcycle TPMS OE replacement sensors into the aftermarket at AutoZum in Salzburg, Austria (16-19 January 2019). Schrader will participate in the show with an updated product portfolio on its 50sqm booth in Hall 10 (stand 0706).
According to an official report on the insolvency of Interstate Tire & Rubber Company BV, the direct cause of the firm’s bankruptcy was the non-payment of invoices by a customer, an Austrian tyre wholesaler named in the document as Bruckmüller GmbH.
At the end of June, Continental opened a new training centre in Vienna, the company’s fifth in Europe. The centre features a modern workshop and training classroom where garage and fast fit employees will be able to acquire extra skills for working with tyre pressure monitoring systems, electronic systems and brake systems. The facility in Austria will offer its first training programme and September and joins existing centres in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Upon announcing the new centre’s opening, Continental stated that it will it will further extend its training activities in future.
Pirelli has blamed Sebastian Vettel’s tyre failure during the Austrian grand prix on debris. The F1 tyre supplier said its analysis of the tyre issue had concluded that “the issue appears to be caused by an item of debris, which led to the breakage of the tyre.”
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton was victorious in Austria, winning the Austrian Grand Prix from pole position using a two-stop strategy. Teammate Nico Rosberg collided with Hamilton as the Briton passed him on the final lap of an action-packed grand prix, having used the timing of his pit stop tyre strategy to boost his position, “undercutting” a number of drivers including his team mate (who started from pole) to lead the race. Following contact with Hamilton, Rosberg’s car sustained front wing damage, leading to his fourth place finish. More worryingly for tyre supplier Pirelli was the blowout that ended Sebastian Vettel’s grand prix, the causes of which the manufacturer said it was investigating with the constructor, Ferrari.
Pirelli will bring its three softest P Zero F1 compounds – soft, supersoft and ultrasoft – to the Red Bull Ring, Spielberg, describing the track as “probably the closest that Formula One comes to a rally stage.” Big changes of elevation and a sequence of fast and twisty corners coalesce with unpredictable weather and the grand prix’s roots in the 1969 Osterreichring, which gives the track quite an old-school character.
Bridgestone has handed responsibility for its consumer segment public relations and the organisation of related events in the German, Austrian and Swiss markets to Hamburg-based company P.U.N.K.T PR. The firm has previously worked with the tyre maker and will now deal with both the Bridgestone and Firestone brands.
Pirelli
