Michelin Motorsport have announced that they will be introducing a new rain tyre at the 2016 ADAC Rallye Deutschland.
The new Michelin Pilot Sport Full Wet 2 tyres will be available for the next four rallies on asphalt, starting with Germany on the 19-21 August 2016.
After talks with the FIA at the end of 2015 for a genuine wet-weather tyre for the WRC to reduce aquaplaning, this has led to the development of a second-generation version of Michelin’s wet-weather tyre called the Michelin Pilot Sport FW2.
Jacques Morelli, Manager of Michelin’s WRC Programme said “The clearance capacity of the MICHELIN Pilot Sport FW2 marks an improvement over that of the MICHELIN Pilot Sport H5/S5.
“Thanks to its narrower tread compared with the MICHELIN Pilot Sport H5 and S5 [175mm instead of 202mm], its deeper grooves [7mm instead of 6mm] and a sea-to-land ratio higher than the 27.5 percent dictated by the regulations, the contact patch of this new Michelin tyre has been doubled in heavy rain. We obviously don’t know whether the crews will get to use these tyres on the upcoming asphalt rallies but, if they do, we know they have the potential to obtain top results.”
Michelin’s Pilot Sport FW2 is only used in extreme conditions and drivers will be restricted to just eight tyres per car, per rally.
