Michelin is set to submit a proposal in a bid to supply racing tyres for the World Rally Championship from 2025 to 2027.
The current WRC tyre tender, which is set to expire at the end of next year, was announced by the FIA in July and invited tyre manufacturers to express their interest in being the championship’s only tyre supplier.
The last year of the contract, which is 2027, will coincide with the WRC’s anticipated transition to new regulations as the tyre tender will span a duration of three years from 2025 to 2027.
The WRC’s official tyre supplier for all categories is currently the Italian manufacturer Pirelli, who secured the FIA’s most recent WRC tyre tender in 2019 to supply tyres from 2021 to 2024.
The final WRC generation car season and the first three Rally1 hybrid campaigns unfolded during this time frame.
Michelin supplied regulated tyres to the WRC from 2011 upto 2020. According to reports, the French manufacturer will be sending in a proposal before the deadline on September 15 this week.
The manufacturer’s representative made an appearance at the Acropolis Rally during the weekend.
MRF Tyres from India has been reported to have made a bid alongside the current tyre supplier Pirelli, per information received by Racetrackmasters.com.
“We are working and analysing the tender because we want to participate,” Pirelli’s rally activity manager Terenzio Testoni said. “Now we are in August and the middle two weeks of the month Pirelli usually does not work.
“The tender was presented a few days ago and this, therefore, does not help. At the tender, there will be many parts of Pirelli involved.
“There will be not only me, but the technical part, the marketing part, the legal part, the communication part are also involved.
“We need to bring all these parts together to make sure that we present our tender in the best possible way.
“Despite the month of August, we are working on it. Of course, it doesn’t help, but we are working on it. But the intention to do it is there.
“We are doing all the analysis to figure out how to make the bid.”
The FIA is anticipated to reveal the applicant it has selected on October 19. According to the FIA’s brief:
“Tenderers must be able to demonstrate that their proposed tyres are safe and reliable and can offer equal sporting capabilities for all competitors within each relevant technical category in the variety of conditions that would be encountered on a WRC competition.”
A minimum of two specifications of gravel and tarmac tyres, a snow [studded] tyre, and a tarmac winter tyre, one with studs (where allowed) and one without, are required to be developed by applicants. Different types or compounds may represent each of the latter variants.
“Tenderers should also demonstrate that their products have the highest resistance to punctures and can offer a high level of sporting strategic capability allowing various number of compound strategies.”
