Motorsport: the perfect test bed for street tyres
Tyre manufacturers use motorsport as a test bed to develop improvements that eventually make their way into street tyres. Efficiency, safety, durability, resistance and versatility are some of the characteristics most sought after by manufacturers.
Tyres
are a key element both in motorsport and in the road vehicles we use every day. Although it might seem that both worlds are quite far apart, that is not really the case, because many of the advances gradually incorporated into street tyres have emerged from working on racing tyres.
Motorsport is a perfect test laboratory for tyre manufacturers. In it they can test new components, validate R&D&I ideas and obtain a large amount of data that helps develop street tyres capable of meeting all kinds of needs.
The demands of competitions such as Formula 1, MotoGP, Formula E, WRC, the Dakar or the 24 Hours of Le Mans are completely different, so manufacturers take advantage of each one to focus on different objectives.
For example, in the WRC competitors race on snow, asphalt and gravel with temperatures that vary greatly depending on each stage, so it is a championship that requires versatile tyres capable of adapting to very diverse conditions. In competitions such as the Dakar, tyres of great resistance and durability are needed, with characteristics that later carry over to off-road tyres for 4×4 vehicles.
In categories such as Formula E, efficiency is one of the key characteristics, and in others such as MotoGP motorcycle tyres are tested that have many similarities to street tyres. Increasing safety or reducing environmental impact are other objectives common to all competitions.
Without a doubt, promotion and marketing are also goals for brands wanting to be present in motorsport championships, but we must not forget that having at their disposal some of the most demanding vehicles, teams, engineers and drivers in the world testing their technology is another top priority for them.
