Michelin has extended its unbeaten run at Le Mans to 25 victories since 1998
Designed and developed exclusively on the simulator, Michelin’s latest generation endurance racing tyres confirmed their outstanding performance potential and consistency on both the Hypercar and LMGTE cars
Michelin continues to innovate with the first racing tyre to contain 53percent sustainable materials. This tyre took to the racetrack for the first time during Le Mans week fitted to the H24 fuel-cell electric prototype
After spending much of the 24-hour classic running at the sharp end of the field,the N°8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa went on to earn Toyota Gazoo Racing’s fifth consecutive Le Mans 24Hours victory. Second was its N°7 sister car (Mike Conway/Kamui Kobayashi/JoséMaria Lopez), ahead of the N°709 Glickenhaus 007 of Ryan Briscoe, RichardWestbrook and Franck Mailleux who came third to go one place better than theAmerican constructor’s result in 2021. Its N°708 car (Romain Dumas/Olivier Pla/Felipe Derani) was fourth. The winning Toyota set a new distance-record forthe recently-introduced Hypercar category, completing 380 laps of the 13.626-kilometer track to total 5,178 kilometres.
To find out more about our comprehensive range of services, or to book your vehicle in, contact our friendly team of experts today.
The N°92 Porsche 911 RSR 19 of Gianmaria Bruni, Richard Lietz and Frédéric Makowiecki took the top prize in LM GTE Pro, ahead of the N°51 and N°52 AFCorse Ferraris of Alessandro Pier Guidi/James Calado/Daniel Serra and Miguel Molina/Antonio Fuoco/Davide Rigon. The LM GTE Am victory went to TF Sport’s N°33 Aston Martin Vantage AMR (BenKeating/Henrique Chaves/Marco Sorensen). It was followed over the line by theN°79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR 19 (Cooper MacNeil/Julien Andlauer/Thomas Merrill) and Northwest AMR’s N°98 Aston Martin Vantage AMR(Paul Dalla Lana/David Pittard/Nicki Thiim). All these cars benefited from tyres and services provided by Michelin Motorsport.
The Hypercar and LM GTE runners shared the fact that they all ran Michelin tyres developed entirely on the simulator, with no prior testing on an actual car until the teams’ first track runs early in 2021.Normally, development testing calls for significant human, logistical and other resources, but Michelin’s digital technology meant that this phase could be sidestepped. There was consequently no need to produce any test tyres whatsoever, which led to considerable energy, material and time savings, in line with Michelin’s Everything Sustainable plan.
After introducing a tyre containing 46 percent sustainable materials at Le Mans in2021, Michelin took its technology a step further this year by raising the bar to 53percent of bio sourced and recycled raw materials for its new high-performance racing tyre.The Michelin tyre containing 53 percent sustainable materials took to the racetrack for the very first time in one of the 24-hour classic’s support races (Road To LeMans, organised within the framework of the Michelin Le Mans Cup) fitted to theH24 fuel-cell electric prototype. Michelin has an active involvement in theMissionH24 programme which seeks to promote the expansion of zero-emissions mobility. Michelin has already announced that it aims to manufacture all of its tyres using sustainable materials alone by 2050, with an interim target of 40 percent by 2030.