Phillip Island (Australia), 17 February 2013 – Pirelli is ready to take to the track for the first round of the eni FIM World Superbike Championship season with the new 17 inch Diablo Superbike tyres for dry, Diablo Wet for intermediate and Diablo Rain for wet. Pirelli has been present at the factory derivative races since the Championship's inception in the late 1980s, but with the season which is about to start, this will be 10 consecutive years of presence for the Milanese manufacturer as sole tyre supplier for all the classes that are part of the World Superbike Championship. This is a unique achievement that earns the brand with the long "P" the record for the longest running control tyre supplier, and consequently the most successful, in the history of motorcycle sports on an international level.

The first round of 2013 also marks an era-making milestone in the history of two-wheel racing because of the switch from 16.5" tyres to the new 17" tyres. Over the winter and during the season last year, Pirelli engineers worked tirelessly, completely redesigning the new tyres which now have new profiles and sides, as well as a larger tread contact surface. These tyres ensure a reduction in movement and improved stability and handling in turns, as well as the ability to maintain performance throughout the race. The compound range was also redesigned from scratch based on the new structure of the 17 inch tyres and now the new blends are softer, more versatile and higher performance.

As usual, the first round of the eni FIM World Superbike Championship season will take place at the spectacular Phillip Island circuit, located in Victoria 150 kilometres south of Melbourne. It is to be held from the 22^nd to the 24^th of February but all the teams will already be on the track Monday the 18^th and Tuesday the 19^th for the official season launch tests. Actually some teams already conducted some pre-testing sessions on Thursday the 14^th and Friday the 15^th but Pirelli did not participate in order to remain neutral and not favour anyone since these were private tests which did not involve all the teams. Precisely to prevent the teams who participated in the pre-tests from having any advantage over those who did not take part, Pirelli decided to provide them only with standard tyres in the range. On the other hand, the entire line of tyres scheduled for Phillip Island will obviously be available for the entire weekend during the official tests where all the teams will participate, complete with development solutions designed specifically for the Australian track .

The Phillip Island track, built in 1956, has an exciting layout with a series of fast and long turns broken up by only two fast little turns where we usually see a lot of overtaking. The only straight line of any significant length is a downhill stretch in front of pit lane that reaches some of the highest top speeds of any circuit on the calendar. Photographers from all over the world love the various sections by the sea which are quite characteristic and breathtaking.

During the month of December 2012 the track underwent an extensive "facelift" which involved the first resurfacing of the track in 14 years. In fact, the previous layer of asphalt dated back to 1998. The job required 5 thousand tons of asphalt poured in two days to renew the 4448 metres of track and make the Australian circuit the smoothest and one of the fastest in the world. This makeover operation will no doubt play a key role this year in terms of the tyres which will have to take on new asphalt (which therefore inflicts more wear) which has never before been raced on.

Phillip Island from a tyre point of view:

Phillip Island has always been one of the most demanding tracks on the Superbike calendar for tyres, which are subjected to strong and constant thermal-mechanical stress, especially on the left side. In fact, compared to the Monza track, where the tyre only has thermal work to do and only the central part is subjected to stress because of the long straight stretches that overheat the tyre, at Phillip Island overheating occurs in an area of the tyre, but it is at maximum lean angle at the same time and that generates forces stemming from various origins with torsion and very strong oblique work.

So the particular characteristic of the Phillip Island track is that it simultaneously generates a mechanical stress and a thermal stress to which the tyres are constantly subjected.

A peculiarity of the Philip Island track is the famous left hand turn, the longest parabolic of any other turn on the circuits in the eni FIM World Superbike Championship. Besides being the longest, this turn also has a medium-side radius which allows the riders to navigate it at full throttle, with a fixed lean angle for a long period of time.

In these conditions the tyre is forced to work for quite a while with mechanical stress focused on a small strip of tread and, precisely in that area of continuous use, there is a rapid temperature increase.

A rise in local temperature like this causes a loss of grip on the asphalt which, in turn, due to the rubbing of the tread against the road surface, causes a further increase in temperature due to friction and a large amount of material is removed. Therefore there is an exponential and uncontrolled rise in temperature capable of generating a thermal breakdown of the compound (commonly known as blistering). This can be limited only by the rider's skill and a meticulous fine tuning of the electronics, but this is complex because it would need to be calibrated for each individual turn.

This phenomenon occurs on any asphalt, no matter what type. It can certainly determine how quickly the heating occurs, but the end result is unpredictable in any case. For example, if very smooth asphalt like that seen in past years can increase the chance of losing traction, forcing the riders to constantly struggle to regain grip, asphalt with good grip (like we will probably see this year) limits sliding, but on the other hand it will be much more aggressive and at the same amount of slide it will have a much higher abrasion and heating tenor.

The track also has various fast turns which have an intense impact on the front. Until now wear on the front had never been an issue because of the completely smooth asphalt, but now, with the new surface (certainly much rougher than before) this aspect could play a determining role.

Obviously Pirelli engineers have worked toward preventing these problems by designing development solutions which will be able to handle the critical issues on the Phillip Island circuit.

Phillip Island from a technical point of view:

“The Phillip Island circuit has always been one of the most spectacular and exciting ones on the calendar, but at the same time it is also one of the most difficult and demanding for any tyre manufacturer who has to race here, precisely because of the particular layout of the track that stresses the tyres especially on the left side” said Giorgio Barbier, Pirelli Moto Racing Director “Furthermore, specifically in our case, the period when the races are held coincides with the Australian summer, so temperatures are higher and this definitely makes an already difficult track even more trying on tyres which are forced to work at extremely high temperatures.

Besides that, this year a further unknown is added to the equation: the new asphalt that no one, including Pirelli, has been able to test yet. If, on one hand, because it is new asphalt it will ensure a surface that can provide excellent grip, on the other hand it will be harder and more aggressive on the tyres. Due to the fast entrances into turns, particularly in the first part of the track, in addition to the stress on the rear tyres, this year the front tyres will be put to the test as well. Like every year, Pirelli obviously had to ship the tyres to Australia well in advance, even before the resurfacing work was finished, so in order to avoid the thermal-dynamic problems typical of this track, we designed development solutions with different structures and compounds (although they are all the same size) which guarantee that the riders will be able to finish the races. For Pirelli the Australian track will be a challenge because the new 17 inch tyres will make their début and this definitely makes the Australian round a very important weekend”.