Pirelli is ready to take to the track at Donington Park, the circuit that will host the riders of the WorldSBK and WorldSSP classes for the sixth round of the FIM Superbike World Championship this weekend.
The track, which hosted the first ever race in WorldSBK history in 1988, has been completely resurfaced for the first time in more than 20 years.
For this appointment, the Italian tyre manufacturer has almost exclusively chosen standard solutions, i.e. tyres that are regularly for sale on the market and can be purchased by all motorcyclists. The only exception is the development rear SCX B0800 which will be present in England to continue the comparison work with the standard SCX.
In both WorldSBK and WorldSSP, Pirelli has decided to focus on soft rear solutions in the SCX and SC0 compounds, the latter being more protected than the SCX and a more valid option in case of lower temperatures or if the new surface should be rather abrasive.
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WorldSBK
- Front: the standard reference solutions are re-confirmed, i.e. the medium SC1 and the hard SC2, already available in all the rounds held this year. Each rider will have 9 tyres in SC1 and 8 of SC2 available.
- Rear: the solutions already seen in action in the last few rounds are available: the standard super soft SCX (8 tyres per rider) and its development alternative SCX-A in specification B0800 (6 tyres per rider) to continue the direct comparison between the two options. A third possibility, but not less important, is the one offered by the soft SC0 (8 tyres per rider) which was precisely the most used option in the British Superbike round held in May. Finally, only for the Superpole and Superpole Race, there is the extra soft SCQ.
WorldSSP
- At the front, the two SC1 solutions both standard but in different sizes are available: the standard one for the WorldSSP class in 120/70 and the one used by WorldSBK in 125/70, also in this case to continue the comparison between the two alternatives. For the rear, the choice will be between the standard SCX and SC0, in the quantity of 7 and 6 units per rider respectively.
Further details on the tyre allocation are available in the technical data sheets attached to this press release.
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I wonder what will be the performance with the new asphalt?
“The novelty this year at Donington is undoubtedly the new asphalt. The resurfacing seems to have made the surface more uniform and to have optimised drainage in case of rain, but at the same time the abrasiveness has also increased. Even if a new asphalt is always an important unknown factor for tyre manufacturers, in this case we are quite calm because the feedback from the riders of the British Superbike, – another Pirelli single-tyre championship, who raced here in May was very positive. In particular, the important increase in grip and the greater consistency of the surface were appreciated and the results were also seen in terms of lap times, given that many new lap records were set, in some cases even with notable improvements. On the other hand, the new asphalt seems to be more aggressive, and this could make the rear SC0 a key solution because it is more resistant than the SCX, and it has in fact been the most used by the BSB riders. In any case, I expect that, if the weather conditions are right, the WorldSBK riders will also be able to show very interesting times”.
