Lydia Pic Pirelli News:

Paul Hembery, Pirelli’s motorsport director: “We’ve passed our first test with full marks. All the teams have done plenty of laps and everyone has worked very hard. We’ve focussed on the development of the front tyre and that has given us the most satisfaction. On Monday, we begin to analyse the data collected over the last two days”
Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), 20 November 2010 – Each team today completed an average of 80 laps and 5500 kilometres on the Yas Marina circuit, adding to the total of 5000 kilometres run yesterday, to conclude the first official tyre test for Pirelli: the exclusive Formula One tyre supplier from next year.
A total of 15 drivers were on track today: one per team apart from Force India, McLaren and Sauber, which used two drivers. As was the case yesterday the test started at 0900 and finished at 1700, with hot and dry conditions all day ranging between 23 and 28 degrees centigrade.
Each car had four sets of tyres at its disposal, two medium-compound sets and two softcompound sets, with some cars using parts of their allocations that had been left over from yesterday.
Pirelli’s testing programme will now continue at the start of December. The next private tests are scheduled to take place in Bahrain from 12-16 December, where Pirelli’s engineers will once more try out the various compounds in hot conditions. There will be another private test session in Europe during January, before all the teams reconvene at the beginning of February for the first official test.
Paul Hembery, Pirelli’s motorsport director, commented: “It was hard work, but a very positive and educational experience for us. We know that this was only our first test, but we think that we’ve passed it with full marks. The comments from the drivers are very encouraging: they especially enjoyed the performance of our front tyre, which is an area that we have worked on considerably. This was one of our objectives, and I’m delighted that we have hit our target. Throughout these two days we’ve tried out the medium and soft compound tyres and we’ve had good results from both of them, particularly in terms of wear rate. During the two days of testing here in Abu Dhabi we’ve racked up nearly 11,000 kilometres with all the teams: that’s more than we have accumulated in three months of private testing.

Pirelli will once again be the tyre of choice for the British Superbike (BSB) and Supersport Championships after winning a competitive five-year supply tender for this prestigious motorsport series (subject to contract). The race organisers MSV look to retain the consistency and fairness that this control supply relationship has given the series.
The British Superbike deal concludes an exciting time in World Motorsport for Pirelli after recently winning the exclusive Formula One sole tyre supply tender for the 2011-3 seasons and extending its relationship with the World Superbike series to 2012 (which has run since 2004.)
Having been the control tyre supplier for the last three years, The Italian tyre brand will again be supplied to all teams for the 2011-5 race seasons, reflecting their impressive support for the series in terms of performance, consistency, logistics and marketing.
With the series looking as strong as ever it keeps the link between the BSB series and the similarly Pirelli shod World Superbike Championship with riders moving between these two well supported and followed race series. An unprecedented number of top ex-BSB riders now pack the upper echelons of World Superbike and similarly top teams and riders appear as ‘wildcards’ at certain BSB events, all made possible by the easy transition with similar tyres.
After winning the first tender for the BSB Championship, Pirelli were able to respond at short notice and put the necessary structure together to ensure the consistent supply of high performance tyres on their experience in World Superbike Championship.