This weekend marks the opening of the 2014 season for both the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and the European Le Mans Series (ELMS). Ten teams, with a total of twelve cars, have chosen Dunlop tyres in the only prototype class featuring open tyre competition for both series. Racing takes place on the Grand Prix circuit at Silverstone in Northamptonshire with the ELMS taking place on Saturday followed by the WEC race on Sunday.

New Tyres

For its LMP2 tyre range, Dunlop has introduced a new rear tyre profile that complements the front profile introduced in 2013. In addition to the new shape, all the constructions for 2014 are new. The medium compound is the same as 2013 but the hard and soft are also new. The softer compound is a step softer giving added grip but retaining durability and the hard compound provides more grip, better handling and better durability to ensure safe double-stint capability at the more aggressive tracks.

For wet conditions the full wet tyre has a new profile and construction to help with water clearance and give a wider operating window between heavy rain and dry conditions. The intermediate tyre also has a new profile for the rear and wider shallower grooves to deliver improved water clearance in the wet and longer life in dry conditions.

FIA World Endurance Championship

A major change to the championship sees tyre use restricted. For the six-hour races, teams are allowed seven sets of slick tyres, with three for practice sessions and four sets for qualifying and the race. Typically, with no major safety car periods, a dry race will see teams race three double and one single stints. Dunlop’s 2013 tyres regularly double stinted without issues so the 2014 evolution should prove to more than meet the new needs in terms of longevity.

Dunlop Teams:
22 Millenium Racing, Oreca 03 Nissan: Fabien Giroix, Oliver Turvey, John Martin
23 Millenium Racing, Oreca 03 Nissan: Stefan Johansson, Mike Conway, Shinji Nakano
26 G-Drive Racing, Morgan Nissan: Roman Rusinov, Olivier Pla, Julien Canal
47 KCMG, Oreca 03 Nissan: Matthew Howson, Richard Bradley, Tsugio Matsuda

European Le Mans Series

Races in ELMS will be four hours in 2014 compared to the previous three hours. Tyre warmers are now permitted so Dunlop will be supplying the same tyres to both championships this year.  Tyre use is unlimited for the races but for each car three of the tyres used in qualifying must be used for the start of the race.

Dunlop Teams:
28 Greaves Motorsport, Zytek Z11SN Nissan: TBA
29 Pegasus Racing, Morgan Nissan: Julien Schnell, Niki Leutwiller, Jonathan Coleman
34 Race Performance, Oreca 03 Judd: Michel Frey, Franck Mailleux
38 Jota Sport, Zytek Z11SN Nissan: Simon Dolan, Harry Ticknell, Filipe Albuquerque
41 Greaves Motorsport, Zytek Z11SN Nissan: Tom Kimber-Smith, Chris Dyson
43 Newblood By Morand Racing, Morgan Judd: Christian Klien, Gary Hirsch, Romain Brandela
46 Thiriet by TDS Racing, Morgan Nissan: Pierre Thiriet, Ludovic Badey, Tristan Gommendy
48 Murphy Prototypes, Oreca 03 Nissan: Rodolfo Gonzalez, Tor Graves

Racing Stat

Last year’s Silverstone Formula One race saw 0.7 seconds between the top two drivers after 52 laps – that’s an average gain of 0.0135 seconds per lap. Silverstone’s WEC and ELMS races were in wet conditions in 2013 but in the previous year the racing in the WEC races was dry. LMP2 victors Starworks Motorsports crossed the line 5.653 seconds after ADR Delta giving an average gain of 0.031 seconds over the 183 laps – so actually the endurance racing was twice as close as F1.

Mike McGregor, Dunlop Engineer:
“Our teams have been pleased with the tyre performance in testing and now it is time to work on refining set-ups and strategies for the specific circuits to get the best for each of our customers. In a way it helps with strategy to have the tyres restricted – last year we knew we could double stint but now we know we must double stint. In ELMS the longer race distance will be significant in terms of splitting the track time between the drivers and with some cars having two drivers while others have three there will be some interesting strategies I’m sure. Our job now is to give the trackside support to make sure that the drivers are confident with their tyres and can push as hard as they need to, whatever the conditions.”