Pirelli Celebrates 20 Years Alongside WorldSBK
The Pirelli Emilia-Romagna round at Misano saw Pirelli celebrate 20 years as sole tyre supplier for all the classes of the FIM Superbike World Championship. This partnership began in 2004 and represents the first example of control tyre in the history of top competition. Press Release: Pirelli.
It has been 20 years of technological innovation. Pirelli was the first to introduce colours to distinguish the compounds by applying coloured labels on the shoulder of the tyres. In 2013, once more the first company in history to do so, Pirelli abandoned 16.5-inch tyres in motorcycle competitions in favour of the new 17-inch tyres, a size more widespread on the road among motorcyclists. Five years later, in 2018, there was the transition to larger sizes, 125/70 front and 200/65 rear. More recently, Pirelli has introduced new solutions in very soft compounds such as the rear SCX and SCQ capable of offering riders even higher performance and a new soft SC0 solution at the front.
The DIABLO Superbike and DIABLO Supercorsa tyres, in the World Championship, have been used successfully by 1438 riders, they have competed in 1105 races for a total of 18,891 laps and 2.9 million race kilometres. The tyres have been developed with the collaboration of some of the greatest motorcycling champions who have made the history of WorldSBK, among these 11 have won at least one world title in the premier class with Pirelli: James Toseland, Troy Corser, Troy Bayliss, Ben Spies, Max Biaggi, Carlos Checa, Tom Sykes, Sylvain Guintoli, Jonathan Rea, Toprak Razgatlioglu and reigning world champion Álvaro Bautista.
Giorgio Barbier Inglese: “Motorsport is part of our DNA and with the Superbike World Championship we have managed to combine the world of the track with that of the road: those who choose a Pirelli motorcycle tyre must know that they are not simply buying a round black tyre but the result of 20 years of experience and constant technological development that Pirelli has carried forward in this championship thanks also to the collaboration of Dorna, the FIM, the riders and the teams. We are therefore proud to be able to celebrate this important milestone but while we retrace with our memories what we have done in the past, our gaze is already projected towards the future, towards new challenges, to write new chapters of this beautiful story”.
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