Castle Donington (England),
28
June
2021
|
16:49
Europe/Amsterdam

For the fourth round of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship in Donington, Pirelli brings a new wet solution and the standard slicks as used in the British Superbike Championship

In the first overseas round the WorldSBK class and as the Yamaha R3 bLU cRU European Cup takes to the track; for the Premier Class, Pirelli continues its work on research and development, focusing on new wet solutions

Next weekend the Donington Park Circuit will host the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship for the twenty-seventh time in history. This year the Premier Class will be the only WorldSBK Championship category to take to the track at Donington, supported by the second double header of the Yamaha R3 bLU cRU European Cup, while the WorldSSP and WorldSSP 300 classes will resume action in Assen. For the UK event, Pirelli is focusing on standard slick tyres, the same ones used in the British Superbike Championship, and on new wet solutions. In particular, a new Rain front solution will be made available to riders, the A0593 specification.

 

Donington Park Circuit, built in 1931, is located in the East Midlands near Sherwood Forest, and is 4023 metres long, with 7 right and 5 left hand turns and has a maximum gradient of 8% slope. The radius of the curve goes from a minimum of 24 metres to a maximum of 333 metres. The circuit direction is clockwise and the rider in pole position starts on the left. This track alternates between fast flowing ‘up and down’ sections (eg Hollywood) to slower parts with curves interrupted by short straights that force braking and sudden acceleration like the Melbourne Hairpin (curve 10). The exit of Turn 8, known as Coppice, sees the highest acceleration out of any corner. In the two medium length turns, Old Hairpin and McLeans Corner, which interrupts the straight opposite the finish line, riders never drop below 100kph and can gain considerable time by keeping up their corner speed.

The solutions for the WorldSBK class:

Pirelli arrives at the English circuit with 1687 tyres to meet the needs of the WorldSBK class, both in the dry and in adverse weather conditions, and it is precisely on the latter that the Milanese manufacturer focuses its development work by presenting new Rain solutions.

At Donington Pirelli will provide riders with exclusively standard slick tires, the same solutions used in the British Superbike Championship, for a total of five solutions, two front and three rear. For the front, the riders will have at their disposal the standard SC1 solution in soft compound and the standard SC2 in medium compound. There are two rear slick options: the soft standard SC0 and the super soft standard SCX, which will make its debut on the English circuit this weekend. In addition to the two race solutions, Pirelli confirms the extra soft qualifying solution Y0449, a specification used successfully in all three races this season.

Also present are the intermediate range solution and multiple wet solutions, both range and development. For the front, Pirelli offers the riders the standard Diablo Rain and the new wet solution in A0593 specification, which compared to the SCR1 offers greater grip, especially in corner entry and maximum lean angle.

For the rear, there is the standard SCR1 and the X1251 wet solution, presented last year at Magny-Cours and used by the majority of the grid. It uses a new compound designed to offer greater grip in wet conditions even at low temperatures.

 

The 2019 Pirelli statistics for Donington Circuit

  • Total number of tyres brought by Pirelli: 3379
  • Number of solutions (including dry, intermediate and wet) for the WorldSBK class: 5 front and 7 rear
  • Number of tyres available for each WorldSBK rider: 34 front and 33 rear
  • WorldSBK Best Lap Awards won by: Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team / BMW S1000 RR) in 1'39.455 on lap 7 and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing / Kawasaki ZX-10RR) in 1'27.773 on lap 3
  • Temperature in Race 1: air 16° C, asphalt 18° C
  • Temperature in Race 2: air 20° C, asphalt 42° C
  • Maximum race speed reached by Pirelli DIABLO™ Superbike tyres: 277,9 km/h, by Álvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R) on lap 14