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DUNLOP
LE MANS
RACE
CALENDAR 2015
EUROPEAN LE MANS
SERIES 2015
Dunlop has set records in endurance racing since
the first major victory at the 1902 Paris-Vienna race.
1924 saw Dunlop’s first Le Mans win when John Duff
and Frank Clement piloted their Bentley 3 Litre
Sport with a race distance of 2077km in the 24
hours. Dunlop’s 2014 LMP2 Le Mans winners
completed 4852km in the same time, proving how
endurance racing promotes durability as well as
speed.
In addition to the record 34 outright Le Mans wins,
recent endurance success includes 34 wins out of
37 for Dunlop equipped teams in the LMP2 class of
the European Le Mans Series and FIA World
Endurance Championship in the last three seasons.
In 2014 Dunlop’s LMP2 teams led 2102 laps of the
2305 combined ELMS and WEC campaigns – that’s
91% - and took 12 out of 13 wins, also setting all 13
fastest race laps. What’s more, the Dunlop tyres are
successful with multiple manufacturers; the nine
fastest Le Mans LMP2 2014 race laps were on
Dunlop tyres with six different car, chassis and
engine combinations.
Dunlop’s notable success in open competition GT
racing includes partnering the winners of the 2010
and 2013 Nürburgring 24hours, 2010 and 2011
American Le Mans Series GT2 class and 2012
European Le Mans Series Champions.
Dunlop’s open-competition success provides
learnings that can be applied to the tyres used in
‘one brand’ championships. An intensive GT tyre
development programme in 2014 led to Dunlop
becoming the exclusive tyre supplier for the LMGTE
and GTC categories in the European Le Mans Series
(ELMS) from 2015.
Dunlop engineers have focused on designing the
new 2015 range of Dunlop Sport Maxx GT racing
tyres. Extensive design work and dynamic
simulation testing helped with advancing the GT
specification before a tyre was ever fitted to a car.
The final options were tested at several circuits
before confirming the 2015 specification in
February.
Dunlop will supply all cars in the LMGTE and GTC
categories with tyres in accordance with the
sporting regulations. One specification of dry tyre is
permitted in addition to one wet tyre. 18 dry tyres
are permitted for each race per car with no limit on
wet tyre usage.
The open competition LMP2 tyres will continue to
be provided to those teams choosing to race with
Dunlop. In contrast to the GT category, LMP2
contenders have three specifications of dry
weather tyre for the season with two specifications
being nominated by Dunlop for each event. One
intermediate and one full wet specification are
also available with no restriction on number of tyres
used for the LMP2 class. At least three of the tyres
used in qualifying must be used for the start of the
race.
02 May
13-14 Jun 30 Aug
6 Hours of
Silverstone
6 Hours of SpaFrancorchamps
24 Heures du mans
6 Hours of
Nürburgring
19 Sep
11 Oct
1 Nov
21 Nov
Circuit of the
Americas 6 Hours
6 Hours of Fuji
6 Hours of Shanghai
6 Hours of Bahrain
11 Apr
17 May
12 Jul
06 Sep
4 Hours of Red Bull
Ring
Les 4 Heures du Paul
Ricard
4 Hours of Silverstone 4 Hours of Imola
ELMS
ENDURANCE
SUCCESS
WEC
FOUR HOUR RACES
FIVE EVENTS ACROSS EUROPE
12 Apr
18 Oct
4 Hours of Estoril
DUNLOP ACHIEVEMENTS
FOR 2014 LE MANS 24
HOURS – LMP2 FINISHERS
LE MANS DUNLOP’S
JEWEL IN THE CROWN
The Le Mans 24 Hours is recognised as one of the most
challenging races in the world. Teams are admired for
just finishing the gruelling event – winning is a dream
that a chosen few achieve. Dunlop has been fortunate
to be associated with many successful Le Mans victors
with over ninety years of racing success at the track
from 1924 to 2014. The last four consecutive seasons has
seen Dunlop drivers on the top step of the LMP2 podium
– a record that Dunlop teams will endeavour to extend
this year.
Racing and innovation is at the heart of Dunlop with
many technologies being proven at events such as
Le Mans before cascading to commercially available
road-going tyres. Aquaplaning, a phenomenon determined by Dunlop engineers in the early 1960s, the
TD/Denloc (forerunner to the RunOnFlat) tyre from the
1980s and the WARNAIR tyre pressure monitoring system
developed in the 1990s are just three examples of motorsport derived technologies that are seen on many
road cars today.
The Le Mans race earns respect from the many challenges it offers – varying every year in some aspect. No
one can ever be sure to win. The track is made up of
many different surfaces offering different grip levels,
the temperatures can vary widely, from cold at night to
high heats during the day with rain playing its part too
– from torrential to just a dry racing line on wet track potentially at the same time at different parts of the track.
The challenge is then compounded by 56 cars racing
together at speeds reaching over 300kph and braking
to a relative standstill for slower corners.
Dunlop has partnered many manufacturers en-route
to the 34 outright wins: Mazda, Jaguar, Porsche, Ferrari, Bentley, Talbot-Lago, Bugatti, Delahaye, Lagonda,
Alfa Romeo and Lorraine-Dietrich. Names competing
in 2015 include new generation chassis such as Oreca,
Ligier, HPD, Alpine, Morgan and Gibson.
• The top three teams all ran on Dunlop tyres
as did five out of the top six finishers – a
repeat of 2013’s statistic
• Cars on Dunlop tyres led all of the 354 laps
• Winners Jota led just 8.8% of the race,
holding the lead on five separate occasions
throughout
• #35 G-Drive Racing led 240 laps – 67.8% of
the total distance
• Six different teams led with 29 changes
throughout the 24 hours
• The top 17 fastest driver laps in the whole
event, in nine different cars, were on Dunlop
tyres
• The nine fastest race laps were on Dunlop
tyres with six different cars chassis/engine
combinations
• The fastest race lap was set by Nelson
Panciatici in the Signatech Alpine car. His
time of 3:37.787 was just 0.006 seconds faster
than the lap set by Tristan Gommendy in the
Thiriet by TDS Racing team and 0.3 seconds
faster than 2013’s record, despite track works
which theoretically slowed times by over a
full second
• Eight different fastest lap times were set by
five different drivers throughout the race, all
on Dunlop tyres
• Jota’s Harry Tincknell and Signatech’s Nelson
Panciatici set the fastest 10-lap average
stints in the order of 3:40.1 – just 0.12 seconds
off the fastest single non-Dunlop lap
• The top 20 stints on average times were all
done by Dunlop-shod cars
• All five specifications of tyre were used and
all were at least double-stinted including
the wet and intermediate options – the first
time that all five specifications have
multi-stinted in race
• Jota used quadruple stinting as part of their
strategy to come back from an early issue
and win the race - most teams triple and
quadruple stinted the slick tyres. Jota only
used 11 sets of slick tyres for the full 24 hour
race
TYRE
TECHNOLOGY
FIA WORLD
ENDURANCE
CHAMPIONSHIP
SEVEN SIX-HOUR RACES AROUND THE WORLD
THE LE MANS 24 HOURS
The FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC)
began in 2012, since then Dunlop teams have
dominated the prototype LMP2 category. 23 of
the 24 races saw the iconic yellow Dunlop
caps on the top step of the LMP2 podium.
WEC differs from ELMS in race distance and
track locations. With the exception of the Le
Mans 24 Hours, the races are held over six
hours and the tracks span the globe – from
Texas in the USA to Fuji in Japan.
Tyre regulations are different too; the same
three dry tyre specifications are permitted for
the season, with two being specified by
Dunlop for the event, but the number of tyres
permitted for each car per event is limited for
the six hour events.
Dunlop’s strong performance in the past
seasons has been rewarded with a strong
line-up for 2015. The number of teams in WEC
choosing Dunlop tyres has risen to nine of the
ten full-season entries choosing the brand.
With 127 years of tyre design experience,
Dunlop has seen a myriad of new materials and
innovative technologies introduced. As
knowledge has increased, the speed of new
radical materials being introduced has
reduced and technology enables Dunlop’s
skilled designers to utilise existing materials in
innovative ways.
Key to the new 2015 specification of GT tyre for
the ELMS is construction development and
manufacturing process changes. Engineers
have significantly improved the performance of
the tyre while also improving durability.
The Nürburgring 24 Hour race and VLN racing
has provided an ideal GT tyre development
environment over many years, with partner
teams including AMG and BMW, assisting with
Dunlop’s programme through that time.
Evolved from the 2014 iteration, 2015’s GT tyre is
a major step forward with significant
performance and durability improvements. A
specialist dynamic testing facility was used to
evaluate a portfolio of options before testing
short-listed options on track over the winter.
The LMP2 tyre design was refined using
construction modelling to more efficiently
position the materials to improve mid-corner
grip. The new compound for the hard tyre
increases durability with the new intermediate
tyre compound improving grip while an
amended tread pattern is able to more
efficiently evacuate water. The intermediate
tyre for 2015 is also able to operate further into
full wet conditions without sacrificing
performance on drying tracks. The full wet tyre
has a softer construction which will improve grip
and driver feedback.
Press Officer
Dunlop Motorsport
Philippa Neilson
[email protected]
Dunlop Motorsport’s website
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“2015 is going to be a great year for Dunlop in terms of endurance racing.
Our partnership with the European Le Mans Series gives us the opportunity
to work with more of the world’s leading motorsport teams. The last year in
particular has involved pushing ourselves with the tyre design and that is
what our involvement in motorsport is all about. Our experience in open
tyre competition has given us the skills and information to produce a tyre
that will provide durability and consistency across the GT classes. Once
we have more data from the 2015 races we can start to think about 2016
and any improvements we want to make. We always strive to improve
year after year. LMP2 drivers will see a step forward from 2014 , in
particular with our intermediate tyre which already had good feedback
which will now work even better in all conditions.”
Paul Bryant
International Events Manager
[email protected]
www.dunlop.eu
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