The Pirelli Sottozero Center changes with the seasons: the proving ground located in Swedish Lapland, with the completion of winter testing, will remain in operation and continue to host all season and winter tyre tests, on wet and dry road surfaces, during the summer period too.
At Pirelli, the tyre development process proceeds in parallel with the unwavering upgrading of cars, so the testing activity is always under way and the proving ground is always at work. In fact, although development methodologies are relying more and more heavily on virtual reality, physical tests in specialised facilities remain a fundamental phase of the development strategy, because they make it possible to confirm and validate the performance obtained during simulations. In addition to the Sottozero Center, Pirelli can count on the historical track in Vizzola Ticino, specific for wet tests, and on the new Panamerican Circuit in Brazil, currently the largest track complex in Latin America.
LET'S GET TO KNOW THE PIRELLI SOTTOZERO CENTER BETTER
The Sottozero Center proving ground area in Flurheden, situated about 900 kilometres North of Stockholm, spans 120 hectares with 250,000 square metres of circuit space and 1,300 square metres of facilities. After opening in 2017, new extension work was carried out the following year. To date there are handling tracks, large surface areas for objective tests, tracks with slopes up to 20%; for summer use, a handling circuit on wet and one on dry surfaces, both 1,200 metres long, and a 400-metre straight line for braking tests on dry and wet asphalt have been built. The facilities, on the other hand, offer spaces dedicated to workshops and to welcoming test personnel, with various amenities that also include a sauna, in perfect Scandinavian style.
SUITABLE FOR ALL TYPES OF CARS AND TYRES
The variety of testing facilities at the Pirelli Sottozero Center makes it ideal for developing tyres for every type of car and now for all seasons. Moreover, thanks also to the charging infrastructure available in the area and the types of tests that can be conducted, the proving ground is also suitable for the development of tyres for new generation, hybrid plug-in or electric cars. Among the last manufacturers who have used the Pirelli winter tyre test area is the Croatian Rimac, which tested new winter solutions for the electric Nevera hypercar.
