Braga: “It has been an intense season, full of novelty and success”

With a rich programme of races and events both on track and off, the 2024 season of the Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli is coming to a close at Imola’s Circuit Enzo e Dino Ferrari. There will be 237 cars in action from various categories and race series battling for world titles and those of Europe and America – coming at the end of an intense season that was full of new developments. In accordance with tradition, Pirelli has supported Ferrari throughout in its ever-growing competition dedicated to its customers.

In fact 2024 has been the year that marked the start of the 296 Challenge and of the tyres that were specifically developed for this car: the P Zero DH for the dry and the WH for the wet. But that’s not all: the season that is coming to its conclusion also saw the birth of the Ferrari Challenge Japan which now runs alongside the successful Europe, America and UK series. This year also welcomed the all-new Sport Prototipi Clienti for the 499P Modificata which has been supported by Pirelli from the start with tailor-made tyres.

“For Pirelli the Ferrari Challenge always represents a great challenge and important work,” said Matteo Braga, head of Circuit Activity Pirelli. “This applies more than ever to the 2024 season, but we have been very satisfied with the results: the tyres developed for the 296 have been appreciated by all the drivers thanks to their characteristics, which have ensured the very best driveability, performance and consistency. The results collected by the DH have gone beyond our own expectations: to see why you just have to look at the clear improvement in lap times, which are now at a similar level to those of cars in higher categories.”

The 237 cars taking part in the Finals at Imola come from all the different categories of Ferrari’s motorsport activities. To be specific, taking to the track will be 100 cars from the Ferrari 296 Chalenge, 32 from the Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo, 27 cars from the Club Competizioni Gt, 16 F1 customers, 52 cars from the XX programme and ten Ferrari 499P Modificata from the Sport Prototipi Clienti programme. To help the drivers and to fit the tyres on the cars, Pirelli will have about 40 personnel on hand for the entire duration of the event alongside 18 low-emission heavy goods vehicles for the transport and fitting of the 6,500 tyres required.

The new 296 takes over from the 488 Challenge Evo that was introduced in 2019, and Pirelli has once again developed a tailor-made family of racing tyres for the latest model, featuring new sizes for front and rear. The research and development process followed the same methodology as used by Pirelli for the FIA Formula One World Championship, with increasing reliance on virtualisation and simulation, in close collaboration with Ferrari’s engineers.

Two new tyre designs will be seen on next year’s 296 Challenge car, which was presented at the Ferrari Finali Mondiali at Mugello this weekend: a P Zero slick for dry conditions, as well as a grooved Cinturato for a wet or mixed surface. All of these new tyres have been designed to maximise grip, driveability, consistency, and working range throughout the wide variety of circuits and conditions that the Ferrari Challenge visits throughout the year all over the world.

The new Ferrari Challenge P Zero slick (in 280/680-19 size at the front and 300/720-19 size at the rear) is stiffer, with more grip and consistently faster lap times compared to its predecessor; thanks also to a wider front tyre that helps turn-in. The latest Cinturato evacuates five per cent more water and has a six per cent greater residual contact area than the tyre that came before it, with redesigned sipes to improve warm-up and wet traction.

All these tyres have been tailor-made to accommodate the notable evolutions that come with the latest Ferrari Challenge model, including a record-breaking 700 horsepower from the first six-cylinder engine ever to be used in the Challenge, as well as 870 kilograms of downforce generated at 250kph (18 per cent more than the previous model) and a Formula 1-derived braking system.

Pirelli’s ‘perfect fit’ philosophy describes how tyres are specifically made to enhance the particular characteristics of each car they are fitted to. This approach is particularly evident on ultra high performance cars, with Pirelli equipping around 50% of the prestige market globally.

Pirelli will additionally supply the new Ferrari 499P Modificata, based on the car that won the Le Mans 24 Hours this year. This is a limited-edition sports prototype for non-competitive use, inaugurating the new Sport Prototipi Clienti programme; similar to the existing F1 Clienti scheme. The new 499P Modificata also made its first appearance at Mugello this weekend, using bespoke 18-inch P Zero tyres specifically developed for the 870-horsepower hybrid prototype, which also features four-wheel drive.

Pirelli’s Head of Motorsport Mario Isola commented: “We’re extremely proud to continue the relationship that we’ve enjoyed with the Ferrari Challenge for more than 30 years, since we equipped the very first car – the 348 Challenge – with bespoke 17-inch tyres in 1992. Car and tyre technology has moved on immeasurably during that time, but both Pirelli and Ferrari have remained true to the philosophy of using motorsport as an open-air laboratory to validate technical solutions that eventually find their way onto the road, also when it comes to design and development. The 296 Challenge – closely related to its showroom equivalent – as well as the stunning 499P Modificata are the latest powerful symbols of the close collaboration between Pirelli and Ferrari: both on the road and the track.”

The Ferrari Challenge Europa kicked off last weekend in Valencia, part of a rich international programme that touches three continents and the most iconic circuits

Two thousand five hundred tyres transported by six trucks and mounted on the 47 competing cars by a team of 15 people, plus technical and support staff totalling twenty. These are the main figures describing Pirelli's involvement in the Valencia round of the Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli, which took place last weekend and ended with the triumph of Manuela Gostner, Boris Gideon and Eliseo Donno, in their respective classes and categories. The Spanish race - which followed the one in Homestead (Florida) that opened the international season at the start of March - inaugurated the busy European programme of the series, which has seen Pirelli alongside Ferrari as the sole supplier ever since the competition was created 31 years ago, and on every continent where the one-make series is run.

The 2023 edition of the Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli promises to be particularly intense and interesting in terms of the number of races, the number of circuits involved and the geographical spread. This year, in fact, the non-European programme will be joined by the Ferrari Challenge Japan, with one of the three races to be held at Suzuka. The Japanese track joins other iconic circuits such as Silverstone, a race valid for the Ferrari Challenge UK, Monza, Spa, Spielberg and Abu Dhabi. Another circuit linked to the history of world motorsport, Le Mans, is also on the calendar this year.

Pirelli will support the Ferrari Challenge drivers with a dedicated team of engineers and fitters for each of the Trofeo's main geographical areas, making a total of four teams and around 70 experts involved. The product destined again this year for the Ferrari one-make is the P Zero DHB, the variant of the P Zero Pirelli specially developed for the Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo

"The inclusion on the calendar of so many prestigious and challenging circuits," explains Matteo Braga, Pirelli's GT Activities Manager, "raises the bar for our commitment, but it also gives us the opportunity to collect valuable data in so many contexts and to receive confirmation of the extremely high versatility of the solution we have developed for the Ferrari Challenge, which has to adapt to profoundly different driving styles, conditions and tracks. The Ferrari Challenge has always offered us a dual opportunity: to test the sporty performance of our tyres in a competition at the highest level and to be close to amateur drivers, who outside the context of racing, well represent the tastes and tendencies of many drivers. The Ferrari one-make, in fact, in addition to being an exceptional platform for the development of products for other GT categories, is a laboratory for road tyres: many solutions born in recent years for the Ferrari Challenge have become, over time, standards for road tyres".

FROM THE FERRARI CHALLENGE TRACKS TO THE ROADS
For the Ferrari Challenge, the tyres are always developed in parallel with the car, as is often the case for the road cars of the brands with which Pirelli is a partner, using virtual design in the first phase, which helps to reduce outdoor sessions and the production of prototypes, allowing the car to take to the track right from the first test sessions with a tyre-car combination close to the target set. The work starts at least a year before the official launch in the Championship and aims to optimise drivability and performance for all types of drivers, in all asphalt conditions.

The productions for the Ferrari Challenge, as well as for the other motorsport categories, are a test bench and at the same time an opportunity for process optimisation also in terms of sustainability. Pirelli - the first tyre manufacturer in the world to be awarded the three stars of the Environmental Accreditation Programme promoted by the FIA for its commitment to sustainability in motorsport - aims to achieve Carbon Neutrality by 2030 with aggressive plans to replace the electricity purchased for all its factories from fossil fuels with 100% from renewable sources.

For the Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo, arriving in 2020, Pirelli developed a completely new tyre. Particular attention was given to the materials and structure of the front tyres to maximise the car's optimised aerodynamics.

SEVEN SHOES FOR SEVEN QUEENS
The partnership between Pirelli and Ferrari in the Challenge has lasted since the most prestigious one-make championship was conceived in 1992. And it couldn't be any other way: the technological collaboration between the two brands is a constant in their history, on the track as well as on the road, so much so that it covers the entire life span of Ferrari and half that of Pirelli, which last year celebrated its 150th anniversary. In fact, the link between tyres with the long P and the Ferrari cars dates back to the very foundation of Ferrari in 1947.

Since the debut of the Ferrari Challenge in 1992, there have been seven road-going GTs cars of ever-increasing power, seven corresponding racing variants that are even more challenging, seven specific models of P Zero tyres, in a continuous exchange of experience and knowledge between competition and the road that have contributed in no small part, in terms of safety and reliability, to the evolution of the solutions provided by Pirelli to all motorists.