Pirelli brings around 1800 tires to each grand prix, but the destiny of these tires is mapped out long before they arrive at the circuit. The tires for each race are made in a specific production run before the grand prix.
Pirelli brings around 1800 tires to each grand prix, but the destiny of these tires is mapped out long before they arrive at the circuit. The tires for each race are made in a specific production run before the grand prix.
They are manufactured at Pirelli’s state of the art motorsport facility in Izmit, just outside the Turkish capital of Istanbul. During the production process, each tire is allocated a barcode provided by the FIA (the sport’s governing body). This barcode is the tire’s ‘passport’, which is embedded firmly into the structure during the vulcanization process and cannot be swapped. The code contains all the details of each tire, making it traceable throughout the race weekend with Pirelli’s RTS (Racing Tire System) software, which can read and update all the data.
For European grand prix, the tires are then transported to Pirelli’s logistics and distribution hub at Didcot in the United Kingdom. Once they arrive there, an FIA official receives a list of bar codes, which relate to the tires that will be taken to the next grand prix. The FIA (the sport’s governing body) then allocates bar codes – and therefore tires – to each individual teams at random. Pirelli itself is not involved in this process at all, meaning that the Italian firm cannot influence which tires are allocated to which teams – although a rigorous quality control process in Izmit ensures that all the tires leaving the factory are identical.
Once at the circuit, the tires are then allocated to the teams in strict compliance with the list that has been previously prepared by the FIA. The bar codes allow both the FIA and Pirelli to ensure that the right teams, according to the regulations, are using the correct tires.
Each team is allocated a Pirelli engineer, who works exclusively with that team for all of the year, but the database that every engineer works off allows the engineer to see only information relating specifically to his or her team over the weekend, so that individual strategies are not compromised. Development data is overseen by Pirelli’s senior engineers, who monitor all the information in order to assist the research team in charge of shaping the next generation of tires.
As Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery points out: “Even if we wanted to – which we certainly don’t – there is no way that we could influence which tires are being allocated to which teams, as this is a job taken care of entirely by the FIA once the tires have left the Izmit factory. It is just another way that impartiality can be ensured among all the teams, which is a huge priority for us as exclusive tire supplier. The way that our team engineers work also respects this confidentiality, which is always of paramount importance.”
COUNTDOWN TO A GRAND PRIX
Before the grand prix:
Two weeks before the grand prix:
One week before the grand prix:
Five days before the grand prix:
During the grand prix weekend:
After the grand prix:
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