The importance of having a good tyre strategy in Endurance Racing.

Q: How you and your team do you prepare for every ELMS round?

“The preparation of an ELMS event has various steps. From the beginning of the season, we set up a production plan of the tyres in order that our factory can produce what we need and deliver us when we need it. This process is also part of a lot of exchanges and adjustments according to what happens during the season. For example, if the prologue in Le Castellet and the first race are wet, we will have to reconstitute our wet tyres stock whereas we will still have a lot of slicks.

“The regulations allow the manufacturer to bring only two kinds of slick tyres out of three. Before every race, we have to decide (and communicate to the teams) the two specifications that we will offer to our partners for the race. This way, the engineer will get their chassis ready according to the tyres.

“This choice is made according to the track, the technical evolution of the cars, the weather forecast but is also the result of our knowledge of all the circuits of the championships, the teams and their cars.”

Q: What are the different strategies that an ELMS team can adopt for a 4 hour race?

“The strategy of a team is always based on the final result “how to finish first after a 4 hour race”?

“In this context, the preparatory work between the Dunlop engineers and the teams is crucial. In the relationship between Dunlop and it’s partners, the first steps are getting to know each other and exchange technical information. We give to the teams confidential data and they give us information about the conception and the setup of the cars.

“In that case, the data engineer of both entities (Dunlop and the team) can upgrade the tyre/car performance for every scenario that they could meet during a race.

“The strategy that a team can choose for a race is just the tip of the iceberg. The hidden part is all the work done before with the exchanges between the engineers.

“To make it easier to understand, the engineers are cooks that can offer to the teams various recipes and the teams have to choose a few in order to have the best menu possible.”

Q: From a track to another, what are the changes that you can operate on the tyres?

“In ELMS, we are lucky to work in various tracks and in changing conditions (from April to October and from the north to the south of Europe). The main differences are:

• The nature of the track (length, proportion of straights and corners, number of fast or slow corners)
• The nature of the cover (texture, grain size, age…)
• The date of the race which will have an influence on the weather (we are more likely to have rain in Silverstone in April than in Le Castellet in August).

The changes that we can do are from different kinds:

• Decision about the setup of the car
• The choice and the setup of the tyre (pressure, temperatures)
• The race strategy (number of stints)

“These changes are done according to all the setups that are known (track, car, tyre choice) and those that can change (weather, track conditions, race conditions).”

Q: Which track of the 2016 ELMS calendar is the most demanding for the tyres?

“We have a few references in terms of technical issues (Le Raidillon in Spa, the Signes corner in the Paul Ricard or the Complex in Silverstone) that challenge us and our engineers know those issues well.  But every track is different and every race is unique. Our job is to turn these technical issues into an opportunity to offer more performance and reliability to our partners.”

Q: In terms of logistic, how many tyres do you bring for an ELMS race?

“For an ELMS race, we bring around 1500 tyres (750 for the LMP2 class and 750 for the GTE).

“These tyres are divided between the different types: slick (2 kinds) for dry track, intermediate for a humid track and wet tyres for a wet track.”

Q: How many people are dedicated for each team?

“We have at least one “service engineer” per team and a team of people that build/setup the tyres and the wheels that are not dedicated to one team.

“We also have administrative staff as well as engineers that come to watch how the tyres works under real conditions et to gather information from the drivers and the chassis engineer.

“Usually, for an ELMS race we bring around 25 to 30 people to assist 15 to 20 cars.

“The 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps will be the fifth round of the ELMS and will allow us to have a glimpse of how the championship will end. In a week we could see which strategy the team will choose to stand on the top step of the podium.”