Pirelli Chosen as Tire Supplier for WRC from 2021 to 2024

Pirelli has been chosen as the exclusive tire supplier for the World Rally Championship from 2021 to 2024 by the FIA, the governing body for world motorsport. Pirelli tires will be used for all the four-wheel drive cars that will be participating in the championship, from the WRC category that competes for the overall title, to the R5-specification WRC2 class, which serves as the headlining category on regional and national championships held across the globe.

Pirelli’s latest sponsorship support for the top class of rallying aligns well with a similar exclusive agreement that the tire manufacturer has had with Formula 1 from 2011: the world’s top single seater category. These successful demonstrate Pirelli’s leadership in the world of motorsport, and highlight the the experience it has gained through over 110 years of participation in motorsport.

Giovanni Tronchetti Provera, Pirelli’s senior vice president of prestige and motorsport, said: “Technology and passion are two key elements that Pirelli bring to motorsport, and these have allowed us to secure the single tire supply for the World Rally Championship. We’ve supported young drivers in the Junior category for many years and now we’re returning to the top class as well.”

In addition to the exclusive supply agreement with WRC, Pirelli will continue to extend support to the development of the careers of young drivers. Pirelli will continue to supply tires for the Junior WRC as well as the Junior ERC3 class on the European Rally Championship.

Mario Isola, Pirelli’s head of F1 and car racing, said: “Our return to the top level of rallying is something that we were considering for a while, and it’s particularly fitting that this appointment from the FIA comes in the year that Ott Tänak – a graduate of the Pirelli Star Driver program – was crowned world champion. Supplying the WRC alongside F1 will enable us to improve our products still further by putting them against some of the most varied and demanding conditions seen in motorsport.”

Pirelli has a long history that dates back to 1973 when it comes to the rallying scene with Pirelli tires being used in vehicles that claimed 25 world titles and won 181 WRC events. In the period from 2008 to 2010, Pirelli was the exclusive tire supplier for WRC from 2008 to 2010, and from 2018, the Italian tire manufacturer has supplied tires for drivers in the WRC2 category. Rallying has always served as the perfect proving ground for Pirelli’s engineering team to test new technologies that are eventually used for road tires, due to the extreme conditions that are part of rallying.

Pirelli will be supplying the tournament with tires that have already proved to be successful in different rally championships held across the world. The P Zero RA tire will be used for asphalt surfaces, with different compounds being used depending on the terrain and weather conditions. The Sottozero Snow (either with or without studs) will be used for snowy conditions. The Sottozero Ice J1 has been specifically designed for Rally Sweden and the reinforced Scorpion K is highly suitable for gravel surfaces as it can cope with a wide range of loose surface conditions.