We sit down with Dominique Aimon, VP at Michelin for Technical and Scientific Communication, to discuss his views on F1, the role that motorsports plays in road tyre development, and the challenge of developing tyres for a country like India.
Considering your background in the motorsports division of Michelin, can you give us a sense of how much trickle down effect there really is from motorsport technology into passenger car tyres?
If we are present in motorsports, it’s because we think that it can bring something to tyre technology. For instance, when we were in F1, there was stiff competition and it was very tough. We developed a simulation model, which was able to simulate what level of grip the tyres would have on all F1 tracks in the world. And today, we use this grip model for all our road car programs. For all production cars, we do simulations to study in detail the level of grip that we can generate with the tyre. And this simulation tool we use everyday was developed in Formula 1. In WRC, in 2011 and ‘12, we had quite a lot of problems because those cars and conditions are very tough. We had lots of punctures and tyre damage because the cars hit potholes, stones and other things at massive speed – its what you see everyday in India, but at a power of 5 or 10 times as much. So, we developed a simulation tool to tackle that. The year after that, we implemented that knowledge into the rally tyre and the consequence was that now the failure was not of the tyre, but of the rim. The rim was not as good as the tyre. And all the knowledge that we learnt here was applied in the development of the XM2 – a road car tyre sold in India. So, in effect, we get a lot of knowledge out of racing. We’ve always used racing to innovate, and for the development of new materials.
What do you think of Pirelli’s performance in F1 this year, especially the controversies around tyre compounds?
I don’t know about the technicalities and performance requirements this year in F1, but what I do know is that we don’t want to be involved in a competition if the goal is for the tyres to last not more than 50 kilometres. At (the 24 Hours of) Le Mans and at WRC too, we’ve worked with the FIA to have an evolution of the regulations – and with this evolution, in the last 3 years, we’ve reduced the number of tyres used at Le Mans and the WRC by 30%. And in Le Mans, the teams that have won, have won by doing five stints on one set of tyres – so basically each set of tyres covers a distance of more than two F1 Grand Prix races. So, we are interested in this kind of racing because it’s a technical challenge, which is not the case today with Formula 1. So, we’ll come back if, one, there is a technological challenge, and, two, the way the competition is organised will mean that we can change the shape of the tyre closer to what you have on road cars today. Motorsports has to bring something to road car tyres. We don’t race just for fun – we do it to learn and develop technology.
Is that why you’re focusing your efforts on the upcoming racing series, Formula E?
Yes, because Formula E is a real challenge – the torque of the electric motor in those cars is really challenging. Also, the tyres on the Formula E cars are 18-inches, making them much closer to road tyres in use today – unlike the ones on F1 cars. Also, since the tracks are going to be street circuits, you’ll have a wide variety of roads – so that’s another technical challenge. And the other challenge we’ve put in is that the teams will have one set of tyres for the whole weekend. So, there’ll be one set per car in which they’ll have to do qualifying and the whole race. And on top of that, a single tyre will be used in both wet and dry conditions. So, again, the challenge is to design and produce a tyre that can be raced in both wet and dry conditions, and last the duration of the weekend.
Moving on to tyre design and development, how much of this is accomplished in the simulation stage itself?
For a new tyre, we’ll start with perhaps 50 possible solutions that we’ll test in simulation, and ultimately we’ll only choose five out of those that will go into prototyping. So, the process is as follows – the first thing is being aware of what the problem is that you’re trying to solve. We have a large team of experts in our R&D department, and all this expertise goes into understanding the problems – because you have a better chance of finding a good solution if you know what the problems are. Then, people in simulation and materials will use tools to tackle the design conflicts that they have to overcome. Some of our tools come from our racing experience, others from projects with carmakers. Once we’ve done that, we choose the best four or five tyres amongst all the solutions we’ve tried, and those are the ones we make prototypes of. Then we’ll test the prototypes, wherein we circle the earth every 12 minutes – which is to say we cover 40,000 kilometres every 12 minutes. So, ultimately, testing is paramount in the development of a tyre – but the simulation does take care of about 70 to 80% of the development process.
What’s your opinion on Run-flats? They get a lot of flak, at least in the Indian market, due to their high failure rate and their high cost.
I’m not surprised. The run-flat tyre was invented to try and remove the spare wheel, and they’ve succeeded in doing that. But, it is not the ultimate solution – it’s more of a temporary solution for people to accept the removal of the spare tyre. So, I’m not sure that it’ll really last in the long term.
So, what’s the future then?
For the time being, the future is still the pneumatic tyre. But, instead of finding a solution on how to drive on a punctured tyre, it’s better to find the solution to avoid having a puncture in the first place. And these are the kinds of things that we’re working on. We expect a solution on this in the next four-five years – wherein we would drastically improve the performance of a tyre, and its resistance to punctures. This is still very important, especially in a market like India where this is a day-to-day concern.
Coming to the Indian market, we know that your plant in India is almost ready – which segment will it mainly cater to?
The plant in India is mainly for the commercial segment currently, as the demand base for passenger car tyres in India is still not large enough to justify a factory. For commercial applications, we really think that we have a technological breakthrough that we can bring to the Indian market with all of our experience in radial tyre technology. And this factory will start with that. The problem with passenger vehicles is that there are so many different sizes that the demand base for each size is simply too small. Whereas, in commercial vehicles the sizes are very limited, and the demand base is massive – so it makes sense for us to tap that segment first as far as local production is concerned.
One of the issues that international tyre companies have faced in India has been that the tyres are too soft and too prone to damage in our tough conditions. What changes have you made to your tyres to solve this problem?
The XM2 – our latest launch in India – was developed specifically for that. It was developed for road conditions that require a stronger casing – to provide good performance on difficult roads. That’s why we haven’t introduced the tyres we use in Europe for regular street use, as those wouldn’t work here at all. Every time we introduce a tyre in a market, we have to be careful to have a good understanding of the conditions in the market, and then to find an appropriate solution. If we’re not ready to do that, then it’s better not to enter the market.
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