WRC Tyres 2014 onwards

[Sulland]

Looks like we will have competition in the rally tyre department again.

Not quite sure when the Michelin vs Pirelli competition was on last time in rally, and FIA decided to make it a single tyre provider championship. But remember that Petter and Subaru sometimes won and sometimes lost with the Pirellis, depending on the conditions.

Not quite sure how FIA plans to play it this time around, if they plan on making Tyres free, or if 2 or 3 manufacturers will be allowed to provide rubber for the top class.

But what is certain is that we will again have an element that brings uncertainty into rally again.


What system do you prefer, one or multiple providers?

[Sulland]

Will we see more tyre manufacturers coming in to the WRC circus in the not too distant future?

[Sulland]

I see that the Indian Gaurav Gill is using the MRF tyres in RC2.
Anyone knows the quality on those compared to the "big 2" ?

Anyone that know of drivers in national series, or feedback from APRC how they are working on the Fabia, compared to Pirelli and Michelin?

[Rally Hokkaido]

I see that the Indian Gaurav Gill is using the MRF tyres in WRC2.
Anyone knows the quality on those compared to the "big 2" ?

Anyone that know of drivers in national series, or feedback from APRC how they are on the Fabia compared to Pirelli and Michelin?

Firstly, as everyone always corrects me, Gill is competing in RC2 class, not WRC2 as the MRF deal was not completed in time to register for 2018. They will register in WRC2 next year. The gravel events driven this year will undoubtedly provide MRF tyre engineers with data to improve their tyres for 2019. As the MRF Tyres team dominated APRC in recent years and no-one else ran a Pirelli or Michelin-equipped R5 against them, it is hard to say how their tyres compare. You can probably get a better idea by comparing Gill's times with an experienced rival, this year. One important point to note, MRF is not a small niche manufacturer like DMack, but one of the top 20 tyre companies in the world and so have the ability to rapidly produce new construction, pattern and compound rally tyres. Like DMack I believe their rally tyre technology originally came from Pirelli.