SBK | Pirelli: for the Portimao heat here is a new rear

The Portimao round will be one of the most anticipated of the season, the Superbike World Championship has brought forward the appointment in Algarve to August and the races will be held at sunset. An unprecedented scenario, but one that represents a particular challenge: for the first time, the race will be held in different conditions, but not only that. The shift in the calendar will see the riders engaged on the track in the summer heat.

For this reason, Pirelli will bring a new rear tyre to Portimao, which will be able to withstand the high temperatures and stresses of the demanding Portuguese circuit. “The braking sections are sharp and often downhill or on a counter slope, with strong lateral and longitudinal loads. Among these, turn 1 is the most difficult and demanding: here the front must travel many metres in a lean and at the same time under braking, arriving at high speed from the long main straight (almost 1000 metres) and after a hump. Other demanding turns are turn 5, a left-hand hairpin on a counter slope downhill, and the sequence 10-11, which can put the front of the bike in crisis”, explain Pirelli.

Thus, Superbike riders will have 27 front tires and 36 rear tires, for a total of 63 tires. As for the front, the standard SC1 and SC2 are reintroduced and each rider will have 8 units for each compound. It is instead at the rear that we find the new features: there will be 8 units of standard SC0 and 5 of standard SC1.

Also, here is the development SC0, which is being introduced this weekend. This, in fact, a soft SC0 tyre with D0661 specification, represents an evolution in terms of robustness of the standard SC0 and has been designed with the aim of maintaining constant performance thanks to improved wear resistance. Finally, the 4 SCX for the Superpole and the Superpole Race.

“Portimão is not a circuit that stresses the tires at the level of Most and Phillip Island, but it still has a unique layout with an intense alternation of uphill and downhill corners, important braking and peculiarities to take into due consideration. We have a lot of data available that comes from both the races of previous years and the tests we did in January, but finding ourselves racing in the middle of August the high temperatures that the asphalt could reach represent a threat that should not be underestimated. The heat can in fact affect the grip of the track, generating sliding and therefore greater wear for the tires”, explains Giorgio Barbier.

Pirelli is thus ready to face the heat of Portimao: “For this reason we felt that this was the ideal circuit to debut the new development SC0 in the D0661 specification which, while using the same compound as the standard SC0, features an evolution of the carcass. In a certain sense, it follows the philosophy already introduced with the SC1 in the D0286 specification that we brought to Most and that all the riders appreciated, both in testing and in the race. Given the nature of the circuit, as has already happened in the past, we have also decided to replace the SCQ, usually allocated for qualifying and the Superpole Race, with the standard SCX which performs better in more critical conditions and can therefore also guarantee use in the Superpole Race”.