MEDIA INFORMATION September 2014
2014 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) Round 4: 6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas
Michelin tyres in the Texan cauldron
After the long summer break since mid-June’s Le Mans 24 Hours, which took place in relatively mild weather, the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship moves on to the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. The American track is slightly shorter than Silverstone (5.513km), host of the championship’s first round, and was inaugurated in 2012. The WEC visited the venue for the first time last year, so the drivers and teams will be more familiar with its nine right-hand turns and 11 left-hand corners this time round.
“We gathered a great deal of information last year and this data contributed to the development of the special ‘high temperature’ medium compound which the LM-P1 cars used for the first time at this circuit in 2013,” says Jérôme MONDAIN, manager of MICHELIN’s endurance racing programmes. “The same data also allowed us to develop new specification tyres for the LM-P2 prototypes which will also benefit this time from new medium compounds whose performance in hot weather has been upgraded. For the GTE cars, we have carried over the same tyres that proved so satisfactory last year.”
An exacting circuit Factors such as Austin’s slow turns, the high torque delivered by the hybrid power units of the LM P1-H prototypes and repeated hard acceleration out of the corners all contribute to the build- up of heat in tyres. Michelin has consequently paid particular attention to the management of this parameter without detracting in any way from the tyres’ performance or durability, even though the latter is often seen as incompatible with heat management since the phenomenon of wear is one of the simplest ways to evacuate heat.
“New-generation circuits like the Circuit of the Americas have different grip levels,” adds Jérôme MONDAIN. “That’s an additional challenge when it comes to delivering consistency. The other difficulty concerns the set-ups of the cars because the amount of camber can affect the constraints to which the tyres’ inside or outside shoulders are subjected.”
The 2013 race was won by the N°2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro (KRISTENSEN/DUVAL/McNISH) ahead of the N°8 Toyota TS030 Hybrid (DAVIDSON/BUEMI/SARRAZIN) after a thrilling battle that lasted the entire six hours. The two teams were on different tyre strategies, since Audi preferred to do one stint on each set of tyres, while Toyota double-stinted, but no fall-off in tyre performance was reported.
This year again, MICHELIN’s recommendation favours double stints in the LM-P1 class, as well as in LM-P2 given the competitiveness expected of the latter’s new tyres. The GTE teams are likely to run single stints.
MEDIA INFORMATION September 2014
MICHELIN tyres by class
LM P1
Slicks = choice between ‘soft high temperature’ and ‘medium high temperature’ compounds Hybrid Wet
LM P2
Slicks = choice between ‘medium’ and ‘medium high temperature’ (new) compounds Wet = choice between ‘drying track’ and ‘full wets’
LM GTE (Pro and AM)
Porsche Slicks = choice between ‘medium’ and ‘medium high temperature’ compounds Wet = choice between ‘drying track’ and ‘full wets’ Other partners Slicks = choice between ‘medium’ and ‘hard’ compounds Wet = choice between ‘drying track’ and ‘full wets’
MICHELIN has 2,600 tyres at Austin for the 26 cars of its partner teams.