Michelin’s New Endurance Tire Passes 24-Hour Test

Changing conditions, a global tire debut and a three-peat made the Rolex 24 one to remember.

The No. 7 Penske Porsche 963 with drivers Felipe Nasr, Julien Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich scored the first victory with the Michelin Pilot Sport Endurance tire.

“It’s like amazing, joining the 7 crew for the entire year and starting off the year with the perfect result, I have to say the hard work paid off,” said Andlauer.

“We’ve been working very hard for weeks and weeks together, and everyone delivered an amazing job.”

Drivers across the GTP class gave positive reviews to the new Michelin Pilot Sport Endurance tire.

“The soft tire is much, much better compared to the previous version, but it was tough out there,” said Andlauer.

“Track conditions evolved so much during the race that we always had to adapt and get it right with the tire pressure and everything.

“It was the same challenge for everyone, and luckily, we understood Michelin.”

Second-place finisher Jack Aitken said: “We had a wide range of conditions with dense fog overnight, really humid and slightly moist, to the heat of today.

“On Sunday morning, it got right up there in temperature, the hottest we’d seen all week. We were able to run the medium tire through all of those different conditions.

“It handled the variety really well, showed it had a good range. Impressed by that.”

“You could really feel that the car was much easier to keep on track on the out laps,” said Sheldon van der Linde, the third-place finishing BMW M Team WRT driver.

“It seems to suit our car better as well, so thanks for bringing the tire.

“We’re very happy with what [Michelin] has done, and hopefully we can get into victory lane soon with it.”

The Michelin Pilot Sport Endurance tire calendar will compete next at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. The tire will also be used by the FIA World Endurance Championship Hypercar category.

Source: Sports Car 365