The motorsport director of Pirelli Motorsport, Mario Isola, says that the Italian tyre brand will return to World Rally Championship in the future as WRC will have a new tyre supplier from 2025.
Pirelli Motorsport signed a deal with FIA and WRC in 2019, which is about to expire at the end of this year, and is the exclusive tyre supplier since 2021. However, FIA announced a tyre tender last summer where Pirelli did not take part in and did not present two variants of gravel and tarmac tyres together with a snow tyre and a tarmac winter tyre. Michelin, MRF and Hankook entered the FIA's tyre tender and Hankook was announced two months ago that it will be the new WRC tyre supplier from 2025 to 2027. Last but not least, it must be mentioned that a number of WRC and WRC2 drivers have complained about the quality of Pirelli tyres as there has been seven punctures in one single day at Croatia Rally in 2021.
"The fact this is our last year, for the moment, it doesn’t mean that it’s our last year forever", Isola said.
"We will monitor the situation and how WRC will move in the future and maybe we’ll come back.
"It’s part of a cycle.
"We were in WRC in 2008-09-10 and then we decided to focus on other championships.
"It was a decision.
"You have to decide sometimes.
"It’s sad but we are not out of rallying.
"Rally is very important for us, especially on surfaces like gravel, snow, ice, also Tarmac.
"Because Tarmac on the open road, on the stages, is different compared to circuit.
"So with the European championship we can develop a good product and continue this activity.
"Don’t take this as the end of Pirelli‘s story.
"We are staying in rallying; we will increase our participation in historic rally.
"We continue to support young drivers to progress to a higher level in rallying, as we do in circuit and single seater activities".
Source: DirtFish.com
Photo Credits: Toyota
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