Pirelli celebrates 110 year in motorsport
This year Pirelli is celebrating 110 years in motorsport and to highlight its forthcoming activities during the season, as well as celebrating the achievements of last year’s champions, the Italian tyre company once again had a significant presence at the Autosport International Show in Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre.
Pirelli will feature in all the key motorsport disciplines this year: single-seaters, saloon cars, sports and GT cars as well as rallying and bike racing. In the UK, Pirelli will supply British GT, GT Cup, F3, F3 Cup, LMP3, and the Porsche Club Championship as well as the British Rally Championship, BTRDA, Scottish Rally Championship, Historic Rally Championship and Irish Rally Championship.
Endurance and GT racing is a particularly big focus for Pirelli, as these series use cars that are directly related to the supercars driven on the on the road. As well as the British-based championships showcased at the Autosport International Show, outside of the UK Pirelli provides tyres to the Blancpain GT Series, Dutch Supercar championship and many more: making a total of nearly 300 Pirelli-supplied championships all over the world. These include both single-tyre series and open competition, at every level.
What these championships all have in common are some of the most prestigious marques in existence, including Ferrari, Lamborghini and McLaren: all of which nominate Pirelli as original equipment for their roadgoing supercars.
To celebrate Pirelli’s involvement in motorsport a selection of driver interviews also took place on the Pirelli stand conducted by vlogger and racing driver Archie Hamilton, including recent McLaren-Autosport BRDC Award winner Lando Norris (who wins a test in a Formula 1 car), Spa 24 Hours winner Alexander Sims, British GT Champion Derek Johnston and GT Cup winner Jordan Witt. These were streamed on Pirelli UK’s Facebook Live page and are available to watch on the following link: http://bit.ly/2joI5ou
The Pirelli stand itself featured some of the most prominent cars in UK motorsport including Formula 3, the British GT title-winning Aston Martin, and the new LMP3 Cup Championship car: with the new series launched last Thursday in the presence of Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery. This latest championship is designed to provide the first step on the ladder towards the top level of prototype endurance racing through a calendar of races on Britain’s best circuits, underlining Pirelli’s core philosophy of helping young drivers to progress their careers.
Pirelli also used the show as an opportunity to exhibit its range of tyres for competition as well as everyday use. These included the new Formula 1 tyres, which are 25 per cent wider than their predecessors, with brand new structures and compounds. As well as Formula 1, a number of other motorsport and vintage tyres were displayed, such as the famous P Zero, Corsa and Winter road tyres. These have all been developed using technical know-how from Pirelli’s involvement in its wide range of motorsport championships, highlighting the intrinsic relationship between road and track.
Visitors to the show were additionally able to take on Pirelli’s F1 simulator, pit stop challenge, and Batak game to test reaction speed: giving everyone a flavour of what it is like to be a Pirelli Formula 1 driver.