Goodyear continues to gain increasing preference in the motorsports world as it is chosen as Official Tyre Supplier. Following its appointment by the FIA as tyre-supplier for the World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) and British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), the international governing body has now also made Goodyear the official tyre supplier to the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and European Le Mans Series (ELMS).
A multi-season contract between the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO), the FIA World Endurance Championship and Goodyear was agreed following ACO’s decision to appoint a single tyre supplier for this highly competitive Le Mans Prototype class.
The contract, to supply all the WEC teams in the LMP2 class, begins with the 8-round 2020/2021 season which starts at Silverstone in September, before continuing across four continents around the world. its climax will be the 24 hours of Le Mans in June 2021, a race which Goodyear-equipped cars have won outright on 14 occasions.
“Goodyear has a long and remarkable history in motorsport. In addition to our unbeaten record in Formula One with 368 Grand Prix wins, we have 14 overall wins in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. This partnership allows us to showcase our technology, durability and performance in the most famous endurance race in the world. We are proud to have been chosen for this challenge,” said Mike Rytokoski, Vice-President and Chief Marketing Officer, Consumer EMEA at Goodyear.
The LMP2 official tyre partnership with ELMS, the world’s leading continental endurance racing series, will begin in April 2021. In ELMS, the LMP2 category is the top tier of a multi-class championship that races at six of Europe’s top circuits.
The partnership means that all LMP2 entrants in the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans, including cars from outside of WEC and ELMS, will benefit from the latest developments in Goodyear Racing tyres. In addition, Goodyear will also increase its brand visibility on and off the track to support its launch of the latest range of Eagle F1 SuperSport tyres, featuring motorsport-derived technology.
Over the weekend, the opening round of the 2019/2020 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) at the Silverstone Circuit in England marked Goodyear’s global racing comeback. For the new season and its racing partner, the company had developed 4 all-new tyre specifications to start the 8-round WEC season.
Three top WEC teams (Jota Sport, Jackie Chan DC Racing and High Class Racing) will race on Goodyear tyres in the highly competitive LMP2 class for high-downforce prototype cars. At Silverstone, this was the only WEC class to feature open tyre competition, providing the perfect showcase to benchmark Goodyear’s latest technology.
All-new approach for ultimate dry performance
The WEC regulations allow tyre manufacturers to supply a range of up to 3 dry-weather tyre specifications to racing teams for the season and Goodyear has chosen their first two specifications after an extensive 12,000 kms of testing at 7 circuits.
At Silverstone, Goodyear offered their A (softest compound) and C (medium compound) specification tyres to the three teams. These both feature brand-new constructions designed to offer driveability and consistency across the varied season of WEC circuits.
“With races lasting between 4 and 24 hours, our focus was to develop a range that had the versatility and performance to cope with varying temperatures, stint length between pit-stops and cater for the needs of a wide range of driving styles,” explained Mike McGregor, Manager Race Sales, Testing & Track Support.
With the first three races (at Silverstone, Shanghai and Fuji) being in temperate climates, Goodyear will initially focus on working closely with the teams to optimise the A and C around their cars. They then will consider introducing their third specification at the Bahrain (December 14th) or Sao Paulo (February 1st) rounds.
Commenting on the conditions at Silverstone, McGregor said the new track surface had been expected to have a major impact on race strategy: “Testing had shown that earlier resurfacing had created a very high grip circuit that put heavy loads through the tyres. We also noticed the surface took longer to ‘rubber in’ after rainfall which was one of the reasons we had chosen softer compounds to give drivers the confidence to push hard on new tyres after a pit-stop,” he explained.
Due to the resurfacing, the FIA relaxed the regulations to allow teams to use an additional set of tyres during the event. This change turned the 4-hour race into a series of flat-out sprints between pit-stops, which is another reason that Goodyear had chosen an aggressive tyre selection strategy.
Wet focus – new technologies introduced
An English summer race means that wet performance is likely to be a talking point. Goodyear’s LMP2 wet features a dramatic new tread pattern with curved grooves in the shoulder to dispel water at high speed but with a large continuous centre rib to retain stability and grip under heavy cornering loads. This design is inspired by Goodyear’s latest Eagle F1 SuperSport range for ultra high-performance road cars.
The intermediate tyre actually features the same construction as the A-spec dry tyre to enhance its grip changing wet to dry conditions. This versatility allows the teams to optimise stint lengths between pit-stops.
Goodyear’s testing encompassed 7 different circuits with the goal of testing in as many different wet conditions as possible. In addition to the circuits of Silverstone, Donington and Rockingham in England, Goodyear also headed to Northern Ireland to Bishopscourt before testing at Portimao (Portugal), Motorland (Spain) and Sebring (USA). “We’ve tested in wet conditions that have varied between 4 degrees C. to 35 degrees C., giving us a deep understanding of what’s needed to win in the wet,” said McGregor.
Starting off with a strong pace
Jackie Chan DC Racing finished the LMP2 class in 4th position, followed by Jota Sport in 5th and High Class Racing in 7th. “The pace of the race shows the benefits of a tyre war. The battle at the front produced lap times that were over 3 seconds a lap faster than the 2018 race and all 3 cars used a mix of our A, C and intermediate tyres during the 4 hours. We are pleased to have returned in such a competitive arena and have shown strong pace as well as learning a lot for the future. It bodes well for the rest of the WEC season,” said Ben Crawley, Director of Racing.