Michelin pushes back its new range of tires to 2026

Expected in IMSA and WEC In 2025, the next Michelin tire for GTPs and Hypercars will wait a year before making its competition debut. “ We have started to carry out a development loop in 2023, said Pierre Alves, manager of Michelin's four-wheel competition, to selected media, including AUTOhebdo, during the 6 Hours of São Paulo. It's a long process because we learn on each session. Then we analyze and redo the tires to test them later. This is why the development loops are spaced fairly far apart in time. »

One of these loops was organized in Bahrain in November 2023, following the last race of the WEC season with all manufacturers. “ We focused on Hard tires, explains Pierre Alves. We focused development on the integration of sustainable materials because we are targeting 50% of the future range. » For comparison, the current one is made of 30% sustainable materials.

After this first loop in the Middle East, the second was planned for March in Portimão, Portugal, with “ in parallel the same loop in Sebring (Florida) for the GTP teams, explains our interlocutor. We were able to test with three manufacturers at Sebring, we were supposed to do it with eight at Portimão, but it fell through. » The weather in the Algarve has, in fact, not been kind to the Clermont-based manufacturer, forced to review its plans. “ We lost a lot of time because we couldn't find a date right after Portimão. The teams were ready to make a huge effort, but we saw that it was very complicated to implement. So we found the solution to come to COTA at the end of July. » Saturday July 27, all manufacturers, except Alpine and Isotta Fraschini who declined the invitation, thus drove on the Texan circuit. A solution made easier by the fact that the teams present had already planned two days of testing for Thursday and Friday at the initiative of Ferrari.

A new range expected at the 24 2026 Hours of Daytona

Initially, the tire from this test session in Austin was to be introduced in competition next season at the 24 2025 Hours of Daytona, at the end of January. This will ultimately not be the case. “ We changed our plans, confides Matthieu Bonardel, director of Michelin Motorsport. As we found ourselves postponing, for the reasons we have mentioned, this test session, we found ourselves in a production situation which was a huge challenge. We realized that we would not be able to do the sanctioned test (IMSA pre-season tests at Daytona organized this year in November. Editor's note) and probably not Daytona. The discussions in recent weeks with the ACO and IMSA were to bring this new tire for the Qatar and Sebring period (in March). The decision was made to postpone its introduction to the following season. » For the beginning of 2026 therefore.

As a result, the COTA test session will not be the last regarding the development of this new range. “ As the current one is going well, we might as well take time to try to properly finalize the next one in collaboration with the teams », adds Bonardel. The idea of ​​the Clermont-based manufacturer would be to add these test days to the competition weekends by organizing them the day after the races on the circuits already used by the two championships in question, which would limit the costs and the carbon footprint of everything. the world. By delaying its introduction by one year, there is also the desire not to distort performances between the different manufacturers as could have been the case by introducing a new tire between Daytona 2025 and Qatar (opening round of the WEC ), in the middle of the IMSA season. Michelin will also be able to refine its work on this new range to “ improve revving which is the weak point of the hard notch on our range today », recognizes Pierre Alves.

This discrepancy will also give the teams the opportunity to work from the second half of 2025 on this future range during private tests, adds Pierre Alves. By giving them just one month before Qatar, they would not have had enough time to prepare. » This will also integrate Aston Martin and her Valkyrie LMH in the loops.

ALSO READ > Alpine x Autohebdo: Win your ticket to Texas and the 6H of Austin + €1000!