Pirelli
Michelin's domination of the '03 World Superbike Championship was the catalyst for the switch to a spec tire. The only two riders on Michelins were the Ducati factory team of Neil Hodgson and Ruben Xaus. Hodgson had won the first nine races and Xaus won the next two before the decision was announced at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca that the series would go to a control tire and the supplier would be Pirelli. Given that they had only three backfield runners, the choice was something of a shock. But Michelin had no interest in building tires for the whole field. Dunlop did, and brought the issue to the European courts, but the decision wasn't reversed.
Since becoming the WSB control tire in '04, Pirelli has added the Canadian and British Superbike championships to its portfolio (the company made an unsuccessful run at the AMA Pro Road Racing Championship). That gives it more experience with control tires than any other company
Pirelli has different approaches to different championships. The first is a single control tire for a national cup trophy. The second one is how they supply the Canadian and British championships; a couple of solutions that might change track by track, but always among three or four choices, no more. It's in World Superbike where the difference in their approach is most pronounced.
For every round of the championship, they bring three or four options, but that pool changes throughout the season. Through the first five races of '09, they'd already brought 16 different Superbike slicks. By the end of the season they'll have made 40 tires that are unique in either compound, construction, or shape, though shape changes the least simply because of the cost of changing the molds
With the company supplying...
With the company supplying not only all the racing categories in the World Superbike Championship (World Superbike, Supersport, and Superstock) but also the British Superbike and Canadian Superbike championships, Pirelli motorcycle racing director Giorgio Barbier has a lot to deal with.
The approach, according to Pirelli's race boss Giorgio Barbier, is not because Pirelli has so much money to spend, "but because we are making this job to upgrade our range of tires and to be able next season to put the best product we develop here on the market."
Prior to the control tire movement, the motivation for racing was advertising. Companies would spend huge amounts of money to build a tire they could win with, and later advertise. That was why Michelin would only supply tires to one or two of the top WSB teams-always Ducati and sometimes Honda-and no one else. They weren't interested in selling tires to private teams. Championships were all that mattered.
Pirelli uses an inclusive approach to tire development, engaging all seven WSB manufacturers in the process. Twenty different tires were tested at Monza in April, a month before the race. Ducati Xerox's Nori Haga liked the soft front, but he was the only rider who gained an advantage. BMW's Troy Corser likes completely rigid tires, the polar opposite of Haga. All the other six riders present at the test preferred a compromise. Pirelli chose three tires moving forward and the extremes were eliminated. "So for sure, Ducati complains, 'Ah, why don't you bring my tire?'" Barbier recalls. "But just because it's 'your' tire only. That's the problem. So seven manufacturers, 14 riders make different choices. And at the end, we don't consider just the majority of requests on one solution, but we even consider people who make a long run with a solution and show us that a solution is valid. This is the most important thing for us."
Barbier said the compound is the fastest and cheapest way to build a tire because it "doesn't compromise the set-up of the bike too much and is more effective in terms of performance as well. When you change a profile, for sure you change a lot of things on the bike as well; in the rider attitude, or the feeling of the tire. And then when you have to produce thousands of tires, if you have to change the mold because of the profile, you have to make sure that you are making the right choice."
 An army of yellow-clad Pirelli...  An army of yellow-clad Pirelli trucks shows up at each World Superbike round in order to supply the 6000 tires necessary to equip all the racing categories. About half of those tires are specifically for the World Superbike class. |  "The most important part is...  "The most important part is the planning," Barbier said. "If you have to produce 6000 tires, it means days of production. If you have to prepare all the materials to prepare these tires, it means weeks of production. So we are used to planning in order to be ready with the production in time, three months before the race. We plan in the factory three months before." |  Pirelli tested 20 different...  Pirelli tested 20 different tires in a test session at Monza a month before the actual race with all seven manufacturer's race teams. Out of those tires, only a handful were selected to be made available. "So for sure, Ducati complains, 'Ah, why don't you bring my tire?'" Barbier recalls. "But just because it's 'your' tire only. So seven manufacturers, 14 riders make different choices." |
Pirelli brings 6000 tires-3000 for Superbike, the rest for the World Supersport and Superstock fields, which they also have to supply-to every race, moving them throughout Europe in eight or nine trucks and also in containers by sea for the overseas races. Superbike riders have a pool of 80 tires from which they can choose 13 rears and nine fronts from among four different rears and three fronts, plus more tires for Superpole.
"Logistics is one of the biggest costs and constraints we've got," Barbier said, adding, that "most important part is the planning. If you have to produce 6000 tires, it means days of production. If you have to prepare all the materials to prepare these tires, it means weeks of production. So we are used to planning in order to be ready with the production in time, three months before the race. We plan in the factory three months before."
Pirelli made a bid for the AMA series, Barbier said, but "It's quite a long story. But at the end we didn't [get] the agreement. But we were very interested and we are always interested for this thing."