Pirelli has announced that its new asphalt tyre has been approved by its technicians and the FIA ahead of 2008, when the Italian firm will become the official tyre supplier for the FIA World Rally Championship.

The new tyre is said to be 'an innovative and ecologically-aware product', which has been formulated over several test sessions.

A statement from the Pirelli added:

"Pirelli is working hard to prepare the rubber for all the different surfaces that competitors will face on next year's WRC from January onwards.

"The Italian firm's technicians recently signed off the asphalt tyre, after an intensive and detailed series of tests with reigning Italian Rally Champion Paolo Andreucci and the Bozian Racing Peugeot 307 WRC used by Gigi Galli on a number of WRC events throughout 2006.

"The countries visited by Pirelli and Andreucci during the test programme included France and Spain, before ending up in Sardinia.

"This intense test cycle has enabled Pirelli to come up with a tyre that has met with the FIA's seal of approval and will showcase a number of innovative features.

"In particular, the new tyre will not use any so-called 'heavy oils' in its construction. The elements in the new tyre already conform to environmental legislation set to come into force in 2010.

"Below are some technical details relating to the all-new Pirelli PZero asphalt tyre for the WRC next year:


Asphalt WRC tyre – technical notes:

Tread pattern

This is completely new, featuring a different design philosophy to previous competition tyres. Its form draws heavily upon Pirelli's Ultra High Performance road car products that are currently on sale.

Just like high-performance road car tyres, the new rally tyre moves towards an asymmetric design, whilst taking on board the lessons learned from the development of the well-known RX tyre, which is particularly efficient on dry asphalt. The external shoulder of the new tyre is wider, giving excellent levels of grip when the car is learning into a corner, while the internal part of the tyre features more prominent grooves. These grooves enable the car to work effectively in wet asphalt conditions, even if there is a risk of aquaplaning.