PIRELLI'S CHOICES FOR THE WORLDSBK EUROPEAN PREMIERE

After the first two rounds held in Australia and Indonesia, the FIM Superbike World Championship arrives in Europe for the third round of the season, the first of the year for WorldSSP300. In the WorldSBK and WorldSSP championships, Pirelli confirms the solutions already used in 2022 with some additions to make direct comparisons between alternative options. As for the WorldSSP300 riders, until last year they had only the SC1 compound available both front and rear for the whole season> From this year the reference rear tyre will be the SC2, both to guarantee better performance also on colder tracks and to allow even the youngest riders to begin to better understand the difference between the compounds in the Pirelli range. The toughest solution, the SC2, will therefore be present at Assen.

WorldSBK

• Front: the 2023 range solutions, the medium SC1 and the hard SC2, are confirmed in the quantity of 8 tyres of each compound per rider. Last year the most used option was the SC2 which offers greater mechanical resistance and better protection against wear and therefore is better suited to the characteristics of a very technical circuit such as Assen, known as "The Cathedral of Speed" due to the high average speed, with its demanding braking and sudden acceleration zones.
• Rear: there are four slick solutions: the super soft standard SCX and the development SCX-A (specification B0800) for a direct comparison between the two options. Then there is the soft SC0, which might be useful in case of cold asphalt and low temperatures. Finally, only for Superpole and the Superpole Race, there is the extrasoft SCQ.

WorldSSP

• At the front, for the first time, riders will have two SC1s available in different sizes: the standard one for the WorldSSP class in 120/70 and the one used by WorldSBK in 125/70 to evaluate a possible switch to the larger size for the Supersport as well. The range of front tyres is completed by the standard SC2. As for the rear, there are two standard options: SCX and SC0, the latter being more protected in the event of low temperatures.

Further details on the tyre allocation are available in the technical data sheets attached to this press release.

In Assen we will start a few interesting comparisons 

“The Championship comes alive in Assen: we arrive in Europe and the WorldSSP300 and Yamaha R3 bLU cRU European Cup also get underway. Compared to 2022, in which a set of front and rear SC1s was always used in each race, this year the 300 class riders will start the season with the SC2 rear compound so as to deal with any problems, in terms of cold tearing, which is always possible to encounter in the first European spring races, typically colder especially in the early morning sessions. Since the SC2 is more protected than the SC1, this choice should be decisive. We also plan to continue the season with the SC2 rear but, especially in the warmer races, we don't rule out a possible return to the SC1 should the SC2 not generate an adequate level of grip. The work in WorldSBK and WorldSSP is instead focused on two direct comparisons. In Superbike we want to see which will be more appreciated by the riders between the standard SCX and the development SCX B0800; in Supersport it is a comparison between sizes, the standard 120/70 and the 125/70 which is already used by the older brothers of WorldSBK. The goal, in the event of a positive response, is to have Supersport adopt the front size of the premier class as well. As always, these checks will not end with Assen but will also continue in the following rounds in order to collect enough elements for an accurate evaluation”.