WRC Tyres 2014 onwards

[Sulland]

Looks like we will have competition in the rally tyre department again.

Not quite sure when the Michelin vs Pirelli competition was on last time in rally, and FIA decided to make it a single tyre provider championship. But remember that Petter and Subaru sometimes won and sometimes lost with the Pirellis, depending on the conditions.

Not quite sure how FIA plans to play it this time around, if they plan on making Tyres free, or if 2 or 3 manufacturers will be allowed to provide rubber for the top class.

But what is certain is that we will again have an element that brings uncertainty into rally again.


What system do you prefer, one or multiple providers?

[Maui J.]

I prefer the multiple suppliers for the WRC approach as this potentially will bring more investment for teams, and is a great platform for new suppliers to test and promote their product. This is evident with DMack.

The single supplier approach had its drawback when the rules made all 4WD cars use their tyres. This was such a crazy rule for local entrants in their home WRC event. An example of this was Rally NZ a year or so ago when all the locals NZ Championship runners had to turn their backs on their sponsored/subsidised tyre suppliers (Dunlop, Yokohama, Falken, Hankook, Toyo, etc) and buy expensive official supplier tyres, I think it was Pirelli.
This was just another unnecessary expense to hinder private entrants

[tommeke_B]

Looks like we will have competition in the rally tyre department again.

Not quite sure when the Michelin vs Pirelli competition was on last time in rally, and FIA decided to make it a single tyre provider championship. But remember that Petter and Subaru sometimes won and sometimes lost with the Pirellis, depending on the conditions.

Not quite sure how FIA plans to play it this time around, if they plan on making Tyres free, or if 2 or 3 manufacturers will be allowed to provide rubber for the top class.

But what is certain is that we will again have an element that brings uncertainty into rally again.


What system do you prefer, one or multiple providers?

I prefer an open market, since last year already. It is open now, as long as you pay a lot of money for "rights to sell" to the FIA. For FIA the best option is the one that makes them most money...

[AndyRAC]

The top of any category should always be an open tyre formula. This is were the WRC is showing F1 the way. It adds a possible 'variable' to proceedings. In the past we've seen Pirelli excel in wet gravel events, but struggle on dry Tarmac.

[Co-driven]

Hankook will only supply tyres for the JWRC?

[tommeke_B]

Hankook will only supply tyres for the JWRC?
Yes, at least this year. Only supplying tyres for JWRC, and at same time only supplier for JWRC. Their tyre patterns are quite different from others (at least from what I've seen from photos from Greece).

[Sulland]

Is the plan that all 4 can supply alle classes apart from the juniors in 14, or is it not decided yet?

[tommeke_B]

Is the plan that all 4 can supply alle classes apart from the juniors in 14, or is it not decided yet?
I think it depends on who pays FIA for a "license" to sell their tyres. Details about how much it costs to be able to sell tyres in WRC are not known. You have this license and the logistics for tyre manufacturers to be there. If nobody is interested in your tyres you make a huge loss... And there are not too many active crews in WRC at this moment, thanks to previous decisions of FIA... For example if you have to transport your team, tyres and equipment for example to Mexico, to sell only 100 tyres, you are not going to make money...

[rallyfiend]

I think it depends on who pays FIA for a "license" to sell their tyres. Details about how much it costs to be able to sell tyres in WRC are not known. You have this license and the logistics for tyre manufacturers to be there. If nobody is interested in your tyres you make a huge loss... And there are not too many active crews in WRC at this moment, thanks to previous decisions of FIA... For example if you have to transport your team, tyres and equipment for example to Mexico, to sell only 100 tyres, you are not going to make money...

Of course, but tyre companies aren't involved in the WRC to make money from selling their tyres to competitors.

It's called 'marketing'.

Hankook is obviously planning to offer their tyres to upper class competitors next year. They don't have to be a homologated supplier to do JWRC (hence why they weren't registered for this year...).

[tommeke_B]

I think that nowadays, most big companies want every section of the company makes profit, and I can not believe that Michelin, Pirelli and DMACK are actually investing money with selling their tyres for rallying... The profit/tyre is huge (of course the development must be paid by this).

[rallyfiend]

Given that the top teams wouldn't even pay for the tyres (those Michelin stickers don't appear on the cars for free!), plus the money to ship the tyres around, plus the probable could of million in sponsorship of the WRC to the Promoter etc etc, there is no way any tyre manufacturer is involved in the WRC for anything other than marketing and business-to-business reasons.

[tommeke_B]

Given that the top teams wouldn't even pay for the tyres (those Michelin stickers don't appear on the cars for free!), plus the money to ship the tyres around, plus the probable could of million in sponsorship of the WRC to the Promoter etc etc, there is no way any tyre manufacturer is involved in the WRC for anything other than marketing and business-to-business reasons.
I'm not talking about WRC, I don't know details. But in ERC they appear on the cars for free... In regulations of Ypres you could find that drivers had to put stickers of the tyre manufacturers on certain places on the car (all 4 corners of the car). And those stickers didn't affect the price of the tyres... Tyre manufacturers are having a big influence at FIA and are actually making the rules themselves, to some degree. This is a public secret and I'm sure some people on this forum can confirm it.

[rallyfiend]

In ERC, the tyre manufacturer logos appear on the cars because the tyre companies pay a big fee to Eurosport.

Which I'm sure does impact the price - and also reduces the ability for the individual competitors to do deals with tyre companies. Why would they do deals - they get the brand recognition anyway!

Those that don't pay the fee to Eurosport don't even get recognised on the leaderboards on the TV coverage - there's just a blank space.

[AMSS]

I think it depends on who pays FIA for a "license" to sell their tyres. Details about how much it costs to be able to sell tyres in WRC are not known. You have this license and the logistics for tyre manufacturers to be there. If nobody is interested in your tyres you make a huge loss... And there are not too many active crews in WRC at this moment, thanks to previous decisions of FIA... For example if you have to transport your team, tyres and equipment for example to Mexico, to sell only 100 tyres, you are not going to make money...

All these 4 have commited and paid to be official suppliers to the WRC. This is different than single tyre supplier to JWRC and DS3 cup and whatever there is, in theory next year all 4 could be suppliers of a factory team, not that it will happen as everyone will be on Michelins unless Pirelli pays someone enough( only M-sport comes to mind..)
But these 4 after now have commited actually MUST be at every event with suitable tires, that`s what they have agreed to...
This means for instance Hankook have to make a 15" winter rally tire for the 7" wheel though they wouldn`t have a single customer in Sweden...

[Mirek]

In ERC, the tyre manufacturer logos appear on the cars because the tyre companies pay a big fee to Eurosport.

Which I'm sure does impact the price - and also reduces the ability for the individual competitors to do deals with tyre companies. Why would they do deals - they get the brand recognition anyway!

Those that don't pay the fee to Eurosport don't even get recognised on the leaderboards on the TV coverage - there's just a blank space.

It's not all true. Footage of Barum rally is full of Barum advertisements because those are everywhere. Barum is tyre company, part of Continental group. They stopped producing racing/rally tyres some years back but otherwise they are competitor to registered brands on the stock market (which is actually much bigger). But sure this is a special case as Barum is main sponsor of the rally since the beginning more than 40 years a go...

Dude i was missed that race due to some several reason but now i want to watch this video race ..I hope you help me and shared with me the link of the that race...

[Sulland]

Will we see more tyre manufacturers coming in to the WRC circus in the not too distant future?

[Sulland]

I see that the Indian Gaurav Gill is using the MRF tyres in RC2.
Anyone knows the quality on those compared to the "big 2" ?

Anyone that know of drivers in national series, or feedback from APRC how they are working on the Fabia, compared to Pirelli and Michelin?

[Rally Hokkaido]

I see that the Indian Gaurav Gill is using the MRF tyres in WRC2.
Anyone knows the quality on those compared to the "big 2" ?

Anyone that know of drivers in national series, or feedback from APRC how they are on the Fabia compared to Pirelli and Michelin?

Firstly, as everyone always corrects me, Gill is competing in RC2 class, not WRC2 as the MRF deal was not completed in time to register for 2018. They will register in WRC2 next year. The gravel events driven this year will undoubtedly provide MRF tyre engineers with data to improve their tyres for 2019. As the MRF Tyres team dominated APRC in recent years and no-one else ran a Pirelli or Michelin-equipped R5 against them, it is hard to say how their tyres compare. You can probably get a better idea by comparing Gill's times with an experienced rival, this year. One important point to note, MRF is not a small niche manufacturer like DMack, but one of the top 20 tyre companies in the world and so have the ability to rapidly produce new construction, pattern and compound rally tyres. Like DMack I believe their rally tyre technology originally came from Pirelli.