Michelin to Start Testing Next-Gen Hypercar, GTP Wet Tires

Michelin will hold a wet weather test at Paul Ricard next week to assess different options for the next generation of Hypercar and GTP tires.

The French supplier’s endurance racing program manager Pierre Alves said that a spread of LMH and LMDh manufacturers — Toyota, Ferrari, Peugeot, BMW and Porsche – will attend the session using a sprayed track surface on Sep. 21.

Michelin is planning to introduce a new range of Hypercar and GTP tires for the 2025 WEC and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship seasons. It wants to continue having multiple slick compound options and is sticking to a single wet specification.

Its current first-generation Hypercar and GTP tires were developed through simulation due to a lack of available cars to run with them, however more real-world testing is now possible.

“The purpose of this test is for the next range of rain tire,” Alves told Sportscar365.

“The wet tire we have now has been developed with no cars [on track]. When we started with Hypercar, we needed one specification of tire for the cold start, but we didn’t have much information.

“We are now learning how to use it. We tested in real conditions [during race events] at Spa and Le Mans. They sometimes tested in private testing. The best test you can do is when you have everybody on the track.

“In Spa [at a recent test] we had two car manufacturers testing. One was 12 seconds faster than the other.”

Michelin has two main targets in the development of its next-generation wet weather tire for the top category.

“We have two directions. One is to improve the polyvalence to be more compliant with drying and wet conditions,” said Alves.

“It’s for a wider window from full wet to drying. We are more on the full wet than the drying wet, so there are still some tricky conditions.

“The tire is a bit too soft, so it blisters quickly. And after the switch from wet to slicks it’s a bit difficult. That’s why we want to work more in that direction.

“The other point we want to work on is to add more sustainable materials. At the moment, with this tire, we have 45 percent sustainable materials. We want to go further in that direction.

“But adding sustainable materials has to have no compromise on performance: it needs to be better.”

Michelin’s first group track test for the 2025 range of slick tires took place at Watkins Glen in July, featuring  GTP competitors Acura, BMW, Cadillac and Porsche.

A further slick tire test is planned for the Tuesday after the WEC season finale at Bahrain International Circuit in November.

There, Alves expects all competing Hypercar teams except Cadillac to be present.

“This one in Bahrain will be the second loop of our development process,” he explained.

“We already did one at Watkins Glen in July, with IMSA, so we already have a good direction. Now we are developing in this direction. They will have the same tires [in WEC and IMSA].

“Then, we should do another one in March or April to finalize it in July [when] we need to decide which tire will be the 2025 [slick] because we have to produce it for Daytona.”

Teams are at the behest of Michelin’s engineers during tire tests, and they are not told what specifications they are running on to keep the conditions as neutral as possible.

“They will not know what the other ones are testing,” said Alves.

“We have different blocks of new versions of tires. Some will be different patterns, some will be different casings and some will be different compounds. We will mix everything.

“They will not have the same tire at the same time. They will not know what they are testing.”

While the new slick tire is coming in 2025, Alves indicated that there is “no deadline” for the introduction of the next-gen wet, which he says could be introduced at some point in 2024 if Michelin feels it must persuade the series organizers that it’s necessary.

Michelin is also open to keeping its current wet tire that is deemed to be the most appropriate option.