As reported yesterday, from 2020/21 Goodyear will act as sole tyre supplier to the LMP2 category of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and European Le Mans Series (ELMS). We expected Michelin to be disappointed by this move away from open tyre supply, however, what came as news is that the tyre maker wasn’t even considered for the role of next season’s LMP2 supplier.
Goodyear is to serve as official tyre supplier to the LMP2 category of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and European Le Mans Series (ELMS). This arrangement follows the decision made by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) to appoint a single tyre supplier for the Le Mans Prototype class.
Cars competing in the top LMP2 class of the 2020 European Le Mans Series (ELMS) will use the same tyre specifications as those employed in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). This provides Goodyear with a ready-made opportunity to continue its European motorsport comeback.
Although active within North America, including as exclusive tyre supplier to NASCAR’s top three series, the Goodyear name has long played second fiddle in motorsport to Dunlop in other parts of the world. This will change on Sunday, with the brand’s return to global motorsport at Silverstone. Goodyear says that after 12,000 kilometres of testing at seven circuits, it is “well prepared” for its comeback.
Goodyear is making headlines for its global motorsport comeback, but is by no means the only tyre maker presenting its latest tyres for the 2020 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) at this week’s Prologue test. Michelin says it has also brought its freshly-developed endurance tyres to Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain to give teams and drivers a “valuable opportunity” to fine-tune their cars’ set-ups ahead of the WEC season opener at Silverstone on 1 September.
Teams from the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) will take to the track for ‘Prologue’ pre-season testing at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya tomorrow. One of the most significant moments of this anticipated public test session will be the return of Goodyear to international competition.
With the 6 Hours of Bahrain, the current FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season drew to a close. Reflecting on an “amazing season of racing,” Dunlop has congratulated Aston Martin Racing and Vaillante Rebellion for their class victories. Both raced on Dunlop tyres in open tyre classes; Aston Martin Racing won the FIA World Endurance Trophy for LMGTE Am Teams and Vaillante Rebellion won the FIA World Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Teams. Each of the teams began the event leading the standings and both claimed race victories in Bahrain to secure the crowns.
The penultimate round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), the 6 Hours of Shanghai on 3 November, heralded the tenth Aston Martin/ Dunlop victory, with the #98 LM GTE Am car taking its third win and seventh podium finish of the season. The tally for the partnership so far stands at ten wins, 21 podium finishes and 12 pole positions including the 2017 Le Mans 24 Hours victory. It was an all-Dunlop LM GTE Am podium, with the #98 Vantage finishing ahead of the Gulf Racing and Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsches. This is the second occasion in recent times that ‘yellow caps’ dominated the podium – the round contested in Mexico last month also resulted in a Dunlop 1-2-3 finish.
Dunlop is by no means the only tyre maker present in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), and following the weekend’s 6 Hours of Nürburgring race in Germany, Michelin reports that its partners were able to “benefit fully from the performance potential of their tyres” thanks to low track temperatures of between 19°C and 26°C.
The latest round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) has delivered Dunlop more good news. After a successful Le Mans 24h race, the racing teams who selected Dunlop tyres enjoyed success in the latest WEC round, the Nürburgring 6h.
Last year, Dunlop returned to GT racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), taking the Teams’ and Drivers’ titles, five wins and nine podium finishes with Aston Martin Racing. The experience the tyre maker gained, however, is of limited help, as a complete change in tyre regulations was introduced for the 2017 season. These changes place fresh demands upon the tyres used and bring different criteria for Dunlop’s tyre designers and engineers to focus on.
FIA World Endurance Championship Porsche teams Dempsey-Proton and Gulf Racing will run on Dunlop tyres in their global campaigns following comparative testing. Both teams have experience of working with Dunlop in the European Le Mans Series (ELMS), where the brand is the sole tyre supplier to the LMGTE class. Both teams will race in the LMGTE AM class of WEC, including the Le Mans 24 hour race.
Aston Martin Racing’s two titles at the 6 Hours of Bahrain FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season finale came in its first season working with Dunlop. In total Dunlop-shod vehicles won five times this year in the WEC. Following prior successes in the prototype category, Dunlop chose to take on an FIA World Endurance GTE Partnership this year with the Aston team, and will seek to provide more championship standard tyres through a testing programme started in September. Xavier Fraipont, managing director, Dunlop Motorsport and motorcycle EMEA, said the tyre manufacturer is “developing new technologies for both LMP and GT with an intensive schedule of evaluation until the start of the 2017 ELMS, VLN and WEC seasons.” Tyres & Accessories caught up with Fraipont after the end of the 2016 WEC season, beginning the conversation by asking how Dunlop was able to achieve so much in endurance racing this year.
