Pirelli unlikely to enter MotoGP

"Our 'model' for motorcycle control tyres needs a very close specification between road and racing and this is not the case in MotoGP. But if MotoGP were to accept this, why not?" - Giorgio Barbier, Pirelli.
Pirelli Technician, Wet tyre falling apart, Bike, 25 Years of Superbike, Italian WSBK 2012
Pirelli Technician, Wet tyre falling apart, Bike, 25 Years of Superbike, Italian WSBK 2012
© Gold and Goose

Whilst acknowledging the prestige value of MotoGP, Pirelli fe🧔els that the World Superbike Championship offers the best way of improving its road tyres.

This year marks Pirelli's tenth season as the exclusive WSBK supplier, a role it has fulfilled since the series made the ground-breaking - and controversial - switch t꧒o a single brand in 2004.

Pirelli then took over the F1 tyre contracꦏt, following Bridgestone's withdraw, at the end of 2010. But Bridgestone continues to be MotoGP's official supplier, a position it has held since tyre competition was outlawed at the end of 2008.

The current Bridgestone contract runs until the end of 2014. Should it wish to renew, the Japan🃏ese company appears unlikely to face stiff Pirelli oppositi𒁏on.

"We always saw F1 and MotoGP as the top of motorsport," said Pirelli's motorcycle racing director Giorgio Barbier, speaking exclusively to ltxcn.top during꧋ the company's 2013 motorsport presentation in Milan.

"Pirelli is now in Formula One, which is the top of the top. Does our branꦓd need to be in MotoGP as well? I don't know...

"For the moment we are in World Superbike, because we thought that Superbike is the best way to make our road products better. Would we like to go into MotoGP just to have the image? Pirelli already has a💜 motorcycle image and we are already a leader in motorcycle tyres, so why?

"We would like to keep our 'model' for motorcycle control tyres. That means, we need to work on a project with a very close specification between road and racing and this is not the case now in MotoGP. But if MoܫtoGP were to accept this, why not?"

Pirelli's present Worl𒐪d Superꦇbike contract lasts until the end of 2015.

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