Tyre choices and pit stop strategy set up a duel in the closing stages of the race, as McLaren’s Jenson Button on a fresh set of P Zero White medium tyres attempted to chase down the leader, on an older set of the medium tyres. Although Button – who stopped three times – was delayed by a problem during his final pit stop, he was just one of many drivers to mount a spectacular charge during the final stint in Shanghai. With
four laps to go, Button passed Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel to claim the runner-up spot.

Vettel chose a two-stop strategy, but was forced to defend from the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton, who claimed the final podium place on the penultimate lap, despite making one more pit stop than the reigning world champion. Hamilton now leads the drivers’ championship, with McLaren having adopted a different strategy to most of their rivals.
The Englishman was one of the few drivers to stick with the soft tyre during his second stint, while the majority of other drivers went to the harder tyre on their first stops.

A wide variety of strategies were seen all the way down the pit lane, with many teams pushing the limits of performance. Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen completed a 28-lap final stint on the P Zero White medium tyre, which at one point boosted him up to second place before he dropped down the order as the tyres went off. Such was the closeness of the action that Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi, who
finished ninth and 10th respectively, set an identical lap time in the closing stages of the race – despite adopting completely different strategies.

The other Sauber of Sergio Perez, whose tyre strategy helped him to challenge for victory in Malaysia, stayed out longest on the soft tyre at the beginning of the race, moving onto the harder tyre on lap 16. The longest first stint of all, 18 laps, was run by Ferrari’s Felipe Massa – who was one of only four drivers (together with both Toro Rossos and Williams driver Bruno Senna) to start on the medium tyre.

Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery commented: “Many congratulations to Nico and to Mercedes for this thoroughly well-deserved victory, during which they exhibited a perfect understanding of how to get the most out of both compounds in challenging circumstances and keep the tyres within the optimal performance window. As expected, we saw a high degree of tyre degradation in the tough conditions of China, with the frontlefttyre in particular coming under particular stress. This gave the opportunity for the teams to try out a wide variety of different strategies, which resulted in spectacular yet clean wheel-to-wheel racing that if anything surpassed even last year’s Chinese Grand Prix. I’d also like to congratulate our former test driver Romain Grosjean, who claimed his best-ever finish with sixth overall for Lotus.”

The 360 degrees all-round performance offered by Cinturato was obtained thanks to the application of innovative solutions and technologies, and will be guaranteed by production with the advanced equipment and inspection procedures put in place at the Pirelli factories in Yanzhou. Cinturato P1 was designed according to the already successful state-of-the-art standards of Cinturato P7, winner of major tests carried out by European certification bodies and the most influential specialized magazines. Cinturato P1 was, in fact, developed at Pirelli’s Research and Development center in Milan, where its Formula 1 tyres are also devised. The new tyre represents a synthesis of the eco-friendly experience gained by Pirelli through its “Premium Performance” strategy and the technology developed by engineers to ensure top performance.

Safety, driving pleasure, attention to the environment and versatility are the four key characteristics of Cinturato P1, perfectly in line with new market requirements: performance seen as safety, energy efficiency and low environmental impact. The use of hybrid material, controlling and stabilizing the tyre distortion, ensures the best road holding under all conditions, significantly reducing the braking distance: at 100 kph on the dry, the braking distance of Cinturato P1 is 4% less than our internal reference, and by 3% at 80 kph on the wet. Thanks to its 15% lower weight and the choice of innovative technological solutions, the new Cinturato achieves a reduction in rolling resistance of up to 25%. Depending on the type of use, urban or non-urban, the tyre can reduce vehicle CO2 emissions by up to 4% by reducing rolling resistance. Also in “premium” terms, Cinturato P1 reduces external noise by 1,5 dB and inner noise by 1dB, improving ride comfort and driving pleasure.

Performance is one of the core values which have always distinguished Pirelli in the world, strictly tied to the concept of reliability and safety. Cinturato P1 is a synthesis of these characteristics, a versatile tyre suitable to all uses: city and highway driving, urban and extra-urban routes, with sizes ranging from 15″ to 19″ and speed ratings from H to W. The versatility of use meets the requirements of all Medium/High power cars.

The new Cinturato reinforces Pirelli “premium” strategy – “premium” products accounted of 35% of sales APAC in 2011 – and accounted for 33% of total sales worldwide. This makes the Cinturato eco-friendly range the Group’s most importante and on that is destined to grow, in line with the expected growth of the “Premium Performance”

On April 12th 2012, the new addition to the Cinturato family – Cinturato P1 was tested at its premiere in Asia-Pacific by the APAC media at Nine Dragon Hill in Zhejiang Province. Pirelli premium performance tyres – Cinturato P7, Scorpion Verde and Scorpion Verde All Season, were also tested together during this dynamic tyre testing activity.

As the leader in the high-performance tyre industry, Pirelli has approached to a remarkable position in developing environmental products while remaining faithful to its spirit for high performance. Pirelli has demonstrated its commitment to the APAC market by vigorously researching unique insight on APAC’s road conditions and consumer needs, which has led to the development of several landmark high-performance environmental tyres. Cinturato P1 and P7 expand the Pirelli winter range and fit with the premium product lines on which the International Company is increasingly concentrating its commercial and industrial strategy.

Pirelli aims to become the leader in the premium segment by 2015. This market segment represents the sector with the highest growth in all regions of the world, from mature markets like Europe, which is still the largest high-end market, to fast-growing countries. In particular, Pirelli research is focused on the production of innovative solutions for sustainable mobility, which is the heart of the premium strategy. All the families of Pirelli tyres, as well as high-tech systems such as the Cyber Tyre, which interacts with the electronics to ensure vehicle stability and proper maintenance of the tyres themselves, are oriented towards sustainable mobility, which means safety, comfort and respect for the environment. The premium category includes the P Zero, Cinturato and Scorpion families, and the winter tyre lines.

The innovative technology, developed for the Cinturato in the 1950s, took its name from the radial belt (or ‘cintura’, in Italian). The Cinturato competed in Formula One right up to the mid 1950s, after which it became a road car tyre for the most sporting and technically advanced cars of the day. 2012 season marks the return of the Cinturato name to the pinnacle of world motorsport: a brand that is not only linked to Formula One but also to the entire industrial history of tyre manufacture. Today, as well as denoting Pirelli’s wet weather Formula One tyres, the Cinturato identifies one of the most successful products in the global tyre industry, which perfectly illustrates Pirelli’s brand values of performance, safety, durability and energy-saving.

“APAC is one of the regions most promising for the growth of the premium segment: as expected, in fact, the premium car park area will see an average annual growth of 19.1% between 2011 and 2015 compared with growth of 4.7 expected% worldwide, while the premium tire market is estimated to average annual increase of 16.9% compared with 9.6% expected in the world.”　Mr. Borgo, Pirelli APAC CEO continues,＂Under the current overall environment of energy saving and environment protection, Pirelli is going to vigorously invest in technology R&D and innovation, guaranteeing the high performance of our products and enhance their environmental friendliness. Nowadays, more and more car owners begin to pay attention to energy saving and environment protection and their awareness is growing stronger. Therefore, Pirelli is to invest more technology strength into this area and striving to be the real leader in the global R&D field of the ultra-high performance tyre. Meanwhile, Pirelli’s global focus will still be on the premium segment, cementing our leading role in the high-end market.”

Since the Yanzhou production facility was established in 2005, Pirelli has invested around US$400 million in the plant and, in line with its business plan presented last November, will invest another US$200 million by 2014. The investment will help more than double production capacity for car tyres, from 4.1 million units annually in 2011 to more than 10 million this year. Production capacity for the industrial segment will increase as well, from 700,000 to approximately 850,000 units per year—most destined for the Chinese market, the largest truck tyre market in the world.

By the time the new phase is completed, the Yanzhou facility, which currently covers 180,000 square metres and employs more than 2,800 staff, will be Pirelli’s largest factory in the world. Pirelli’s China strategy also includes the expansion of its sales network, from fewer than 1,000 sales points in 2011 to more than 3,000 in 2014.

Strengthening the company’s presence in China is part of Pirelli’s broader expansion strategy for the Asia Pacific markets, where leadership has been entrusted to the new CEO, Mr. Gregorio Borgo. Having been with Pirelli Group for more than 20 years, Mr. Borgo has spent 15 years in the Asia Pacific region. He is expected to play a significant role in the company’s Asia Pacific development, where the premium automotive market is expected to grow 19.1 per cent annually through 2015, compared to just 4.7 per cent worldwide. At the same time, Asia Pacific’s premium tyre market is expected to increase 16.9 per cent on average each year, compared to 9.6 per cent worldwide.

In 2011, the Asia Pacific markets generated 353 million euros in revenue for Pirelli, (a 23 per cent year on year increase), accounting for roughly 6 per cent of total worldwide revenue. The region’s annual revenue is expected to continue to grow an average of 23 per cent per year for the next three years, exceeding 650 million euros by 2014.

Apart from the Yanzhou plant, Pirelli seeks to extend its claim in Far East markets with a new motorcycle tyre factory in Indonesia, Pirelli’s first factory in the country. The project, initiated with a Memorandum of Understanding, involves a partnership between Pirelli, the majority partner, and PT Astra Otoparts Tbk, a leader in the production of components for the automotive sector in Indonesia. The new industrial site will involve a total investment of US$90 million over three years. Production will begin in 2013 and the plant will be fully operational by 2016, producing seven million motorcycle tyres each year.

A rain shower before the start of the race meant that all the drivers apart from the two HRTs started on Cinturato Green intermediates. After just one lap, Perez came into the pits to change to full wets as the rain fell harder – and this call turned out to be the foundation of his result.

His early stop meant that Perez was up to third when the race was suspended on lap eight because of torrential rain. The re-start took place behind the safety car, which obliged all the drivers to start on the full wet tyres, according to the rules. As the track dried, the leaders moved onto intermediates and Perez led a race for the first time, before being passed by Alonso.

Even before the red flag came out, there was already variety of tyre strategies in play. HRTs decision to start on the full wet tyre boosted Narain Karthikeyan to 10th overall when the race was suspended: the first time that the young Spanish team has finished a lap in the points. By contrast, Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne remained on the intermediate tyre until the red flag, proving the adaptability of Pirelli’s Cinturato Green by hanging onto seventh place despite huge quantities of spray and standing water. Marussia also found itself running in the points, thanks to eighth place for rookie Charles Pic shortly after the re-start.
On lap 37 Toro Rosso driver Daniel Ricciardo was the first driver to move onto slicks, using the P Zero White medium, while Alonso’s switch to the medium slick three laps later was instrumental in ensuring his 28th career victory.

The fastest lap of the race was set on the P Zero Silver hard tyre by Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen with three laps to go. The longest stints of the race were all 27 laps on the Cinturato Green intermediate tyre, run by Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) and Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber).

Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery commented: “This race had echoes of Canada last year, which was also suspended due to rain. Once more, that created an intriguing set of circumstances and some stand-out performances, such as Alonso and Perez at the front, who were the class of the field. After the re-start, it was important for the drivers to look after the intermediates – which showed great versatility in very mixed conditions – in order to keep them within their operating temperature range. The top two finishers adopted a completely different tyre strategy, with Alonso on the medium tyre and Perez on the hard tyre in the final stint, which shows how our decision to close up the performance gaps between the compounds has led to even closer racing. We’d also like to congratulate Bruno Senna, who scores his best-ever grand prix result in sixth.”

The top finishers adopted a two-stop strategy for the race, as was the case last year, but with the pace of the medium and the soft compound only differing by around 0.5 seconds per lap, the way in which they used the tyres was different – with some drivers favouring two stints on the soft tyre and others preferring two stints on the medium. Sauber driver Sergio Perez once more was the only person to adopt a one-stop strategy, starting on the medium tyre and changing to the soft on lap 24, to claim eighth place.

One of the turning points of the race was a safety car on lap 36, which bunched up the field and allowed Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel to claim second place by passing McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton in the pits. Up to that point McLaren’s tyre strategy had been working perfectly, with the team choosing to pit both cars on the same lap for their second stops just before the safety car. When the safety car came in with only 16 laps to go, all the drivers apart from the Toro Rossos were on the P Zero White medium tyres.

At the restart, race leader Jenson Button demonstrated the rapid warm-up time of the medium compound even in the cool conditions of the afternoon by pulling out a second within the first sector, to eventually claim his third victory in Australia. Vettel, who finished runner-up, had adopted a completely different strategy by using the soft tyre during his medium stint. Last year, Vettel’s winning margin was 22 seconds; this year Button won by just over two seconds.

Throughout the final 10 laps, the top four drivers were covered by just over five seconds, with the final podium places remaining undecided right up to the final lap. A long first stint – which took him all the way up to second place at one point – was a vital ingredient in boosting former World Champion Kimi Raikkonen from 18th place on the grid to a points-scoring seventh, which he claimed for Lotus on the final lap.

The fastest lap of the race was set on the P Zero White medium tyre, by Jenson Button, who took the 13th victory of his career. The longest stint on the soft tyre came from Perez, who completed 33 laps, and the longest stint on the medium tyre was 26 laps from Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg.

Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery commented: “The Australian Grand Prix certainly lived up to expectations, and we fulfilled our objective of providing scope for more strategies by reducing the performance gaps between the compounds and extending the window of peak performance. An interesting element was that there were many pit stops that were not for wear level but instead for degradation, confirming what we wanted to achieve strategy-wise. We also saw more use of the medium tyre than the soft tyre, contrary to last year. Despite this range of strategies there were some very tight battles all the way down the field right up to a dramatic final lap, with one driver crashing out and eighth, ninth and 10th places crossing the finish line practically together! The wear and degradation of the tyres was around 0.1 seconds per lap on the soft tyre – with the frontrunners choosing to pit twice, despite the rapid pace at the front of the field. Many congratulations to Jenson Button and McLaren for a stylish victory and also to Mark Webber, who scores his best-ever finish on home territory.”

The 39th issue of ‘The Cal™’ is the work of Mario Sorrenti, the first Italian photographer in the history of a calendar that has become a cult. Neapolitan by birth and New Yorker by adoption, Sorrenti chose the island of Corsica and its rugged landscape to create his ‘swoon’: ecstasy captured by images.

“The intense relationship between a photographer and his Muse is the very essence of the creation of a strong aesthetic dialogue which leads to the sublimation of natural beauty. In making “The Cal™”, I approached the subjects of my pictures by building a straightforward, intimate and real relationship which made it possible for me to instill the images with purity. In “swoon”, I put the bodies in direct contact with Nature, which harbors them as if they were its extension, in a set of images where rocks, land, tree trunks, sky and sea are all turned into a backdrop for the bodies”, says Mario Sorrenti, an artist whose fame was built on his extraordinary skill with nudes.

The 25 pictures of the 2012 “Calendario Pirelli” eighteen black and white and seven colour – are presented in a refined, canvas-lined portfolio, a format that has never been used before.

The 2012 Calendar features 12 protagonists, nine models and three actresses. The models include the Brazilian Isabeli Fontana (2003 Cal by Bruce Weber, 2005 by Patrick Demarchelier, 2009 by Peter Beard and 2011 by Karl Lagerfeld), the Russian Natasha Poly (2011 Pirelli Cal by Karl Lagerfeld), the Dutch Saskia de Brauw and Lara Stone (2009 Cal by Peter Beard and 2011 by Karl Lagerfeld), the Americans Joan Small and Guinevere Van Seenus (2006 Cal by Mert and Marcus), the Polish Malgosia (2009 Cal by Peter Beard), the Lithuanian Edita Vilkeviciute, the British Kate Moss (1994 Calby Herb Ritts and 2006 by Mert and Marcus). The actresses are the Ukrainian Milla Jovovich (1998 Cal by Bruce Weber), the Italian Margareth Madè and the Japanese Rinko Kikuchi.

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As nearly all the most expensive private GT cars in China gethered here, the event made a big echo and very impressively.

Over 1000 GT cars went to the circuit at first day, around 400-500 GT cars stayed for the 2 days events.

Clubs from Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Yunnan, Chongqing, Fujian etc. particpated the event, part of the models here: Bugatti Veyron, Pagani ZondaR/F, Gumpert AppoloS, Koenigsegg Agera, Tramontana R/C/S, Aston Martin One 77, DBS/DB9,  Lamborghini Mucielago, LP640/560/Superleggera/Spider , Ferrari Enzo/599 GTB/GTO/F458/F430/365/355, Porsche, Maserati, AMG, BMW M, Audi Quattro R8, Spike, Viper, Ford GT, Corvert Z06…

A great GT parade in circuit followed an 8 laps race between each club separated into 4 groups according to models.

The Forum is hosted by China Automobile Manufacturers Association, China Automotive Engineers Society, China International Trade Committee Automotive Branch, China Automotive Technology and Research Center and Motor Trend magazine. The forum has been valued as the most important and trusted on whole China auto aftersales market. More than 40 scholars and experts from the industry had got together here to discuss and explore current situation and future trend on China auto aftersales market.

On the Forum, the most important is to announce the five awards, which had been seen as the highest honor on auto aftersales industry.

Pirelli Asia Pacific Marketing Director Mr Giovanni Angelo Ponzoni took a presentation to accept the award, “We are much honored to get Best Marketing award, which is the recognition to all Pirelli people’s effort. Pirelli always focus on green performance and superb performance product, which is why F1 teams and many luxury auto manufactures choose Pirelli. Also Pirelli has a great power on brand building. Pirelli is not only a tyre manufacture; we also had much achievement on Pirelli Calendar, sponsorship with Inter and so on. In the coming years, Pirelli will continue to invest in product development, brand marketing and technology innovation on China and Asia Pacific market”.

On China, Pirelli had a progressive development on the past years. During 2010, Pirelli retail network got an expansion boom with near 100% incremental on retailer amount and Pirelli’s business covered the whole of China.

After another exciting finale, Hamilton was followed home by Vettel who maintains his championship lead. Tyre strategy proved crucial to the outcome of the race, with the McLarens opting for a three-stop strategy while Red Bull selected two stops for Vettel and three stops for Mark Webber, who started from 18^th on the grid after hitting problems on Saturday during free practice and qualifying.

Webber’s early exit from qualifying meant that he was able to save three sets of soft PZero tyres for the race, which he was able to use to devastating effect on Sunday. Having worked his way through the field by sprinting between his three pit stops, Webber was able to climb onto the podium by passing Button on the penultimate lap.

Vettel was able to make his two-stop strategy work right up to the closing stages but he was completing a much longer stint on the hard tyres than his rivals, setting up a thrilling finish in which the top six were covered by just 15 seconds. There was plenty of overtaking in a lively race from start to finish, thanks to some thrilling battles featuring multiple world champions Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso, as well as some of the new and exciting talents to emerge in the sport such as Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi.

Once more this year the weather remained dry throughout the weekend, with the race starting in ambient temperatures of 22 degrees centigrade and a track temperature of 30 degrees centigrade. All the drivers apart from Webber started the race on the soft tyre, with the teams split between two and three stop strategies. A notable exception was HRT driver Narain Karthikeyan, who was classified 23^rd after stopping only once on lap 23. The fastest lap of the race, set by Webber (1m38.993s) was also considerably quicker than the fastest race lap set by Hamilton last year (1m42.061s) – during which there were some periods of light rain.

Pirelli’s Motorsport Director Paul Hembery said: “The races just seem to keep on getting better and better this year! I think nobody watching really knew how it was going to finish until the very end, which is exactly what we wanted to achieve when we started our Formula One project. We saw an interesting split of strategies, with McLaren managing to make three stops work for Hamilton but Red Bull coming very close to winning with just two. Compared to Malaysia we experienced a lot less degradation, with some drivers managing to get 20 laps or more out of the hard tyre. We didn’t experience an excessive amount of the toffee-like ‘marbles’ out on track and it was clear that this race

was won and lost on tyre strategy. The end result was that all the leading runners were very close together at the finish, and the people who had looked after their tyres best took the top results. It’s hard to imagine how we can top this at the next grand prix in Turkey, but we’re certainly going to try to have something just as good.” 

Pit stop summary – 2011 Chinese Grand Prix

The first column denotes the tyres the driver started the race on. S = Soft compound H = Hard compound

The last column gives the total amount of pit stops. * Drive through

*** 

Copyright-free video news releases featuring interviews with Paul Hembery, as well as photographs and press releases are available for media use from: www.pirelli.com/f1

 The German used Pirelli’s hard compound tyres to get into Q2, before switching to the soft compound to set a fastest time of 1m33.706s in the final session, eclipsing his own pole position time last year of 1m34.558s by eight-tenths of a second.

 The top three, completed by the McLarens of Jenson Button (1m34.421s) and Lewis Hamilton (1m34.463s) were all faster than last year’s pole.

 The vast majority of the drivers remaining after Q1 used the soft compound tyres in the second and third sessions, which proved to be extremely effective in the relatively cool conditions of Shanghai. Ambient temperatures were 17 degrees centigrade with a track temperature of 22 degrees centigrade. There were also gusting winds in the region of five metres per second.

 Vettel timed his tactics perfectly, as tyre management is now an essential part of qualifying to ensure that the desired quantities of hard and soft tyres are available to support the planned race strategy. “The main thing is that your tyres are in good shape and I think we did a good job,” concluded Vettel, who had also topped the times in the final free practice session this morning.

 There was little tyre degradation and a lap time difference of around a second and a half between the hard and the soft tyres, as predicted. This means that the soft tyres should last around 13-14 laps, while the hard tyres should be good for 19-20 laps. The leading runners are likely to opt for a two-stop strategy, but there is a possibility of some teams trying for one or three stops.

 Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery commented: “It’s been another very exciting and eventful session, which has underlined not only the performance but also the consistency of our tyres. A number of drivers were able to set their fastest times on used soft tyres, proving that the drop-off is manageable enough to provide a good spread of performance over a stint. All the leading teams have shown themselves to be very competitive, so the indications are that we’re going to have a very closely-fought race tomorrow.”

Copyright-free video news releases featuring interviews with Paul Hembery, as well as photographs and press releases are available for media use from: www.pirelli.com/f1

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