After 22 years as the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship’s control tyre supplier, Pirelli Motorcycle Racing Director Giorgio Barbier sat down to reflect on his professional and personal experience across their decades-long collaboration. From technological advances to forging strong personal relationships in the paddock, Barbier reminisced fondly on the Italian brand’s time in this paddock.

“IT WAS AN IMPORTANT MOVE BY PIRELLI TO START THIS PERIOD WORKING WITH WORLDSBK”

Before the 2004 season, WorldSBK allowed teams and manufacturers to choose their own tyre providers. While there were even doubts from within Pirelli about the concept of a control tyre supplier, the decision has spurred on a rapid development of tyre technology, benefiting both Pirelli and the Championship.

On that decision and what both sides have benefitted from it, Barbier said: “In 2003, when we started talking about a control tyre, everyone was against us. Not only from the riders and their teams, but from within Pirelli itself, people said, ' Why do we have to lose the opportunity to compete with our competitors on track?’. It was an important move by Pirelli to start this period working with WorldSBK.”

“WORLD SUPERBIKE CAUSED PIRELLI TO CHANGE THEIR APPROACH, FROM A PROTOTYPE POINT OF VIEW AS WELL AS AN INDUSTRIAL POINT OF VIEW”

In those days, the paddock was hardly recognisable as the high-tech, electronically balanced, cloud-based environment it is today. Riders were essentially the only link between engineers and the feel their tyres generated on track. The development wasn’t limited to WorldSBK either; Pirelli gained a paddock full of world-class guinea pigs to test the cutting-edge new tyres their expanded facilities were producing in ever-greater numbers.

On the development of the WorldSBK paddock over Pirelli’s 23 seasons supplying the paddock, Barbier said: “The Championship has changed a lot over these last two decades; we passed from a world in which riders arrived at the paddock in their own vans, and the electronics and aerodynamics weren’t very important. Riders were the only guides to give feedback to the engineers. Many riders helped us in our mission to develop our tyres, each in a different way. Some riders gave us a lot of information; others gave us only very fast lap times. This partnership between Pirelli and the Championship was important from the beginning; Pirelli had to produce thousands of tyres for every race. This forced Pirelli to change its approach, both from a prototype and an industrial perspective, largely because of WorldSBK. This Championship gave a new identity to Pirelli's racing program.”

“PIRELLI LEARNED HOW TO PRODUCE TYRES WITH A HIGH LEVEL OF QUALITY, A LOT OF PERFORMANCE, AND AT AN ACCEPTABLE PRICE”

As Pirelli tyres took WorldSBK riders faster and faster around some of the world’s premier circuits, motorcycle fans became interested in what Pirelli tyres could do for their lap times at their own track days. This interplay between development driven by WorldSBK rider feedback and expanding industrial capabilities at Pirelli’s factories culminated in new compounds like the now-ubiquitous SCQ and SCX tyres.

On Pirelli’s technical development, Barbier said: “There were a few very proud moments over these years collaborating; one of those was when we realised there was a market for the racing tyres. We saw people leaving the road and riding on circuits to prove their own bikes. They showed interest, which led us to develop newer compounds like the SCX or SCQ. Pirelli learned how to produce tyres with a high level of quality, strong performance, and an acceptable price. Being part of WorldSBK has been an incredible experience, not only in terms of professional work, but also as a life experience to meet so many people with the same passions and interests.”

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