As the exclusive tire supplier for the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category, Goodyear will supply vehicles with its own Eagle F1 SuperSport race tires for the 2022 Le Mans 24 Hours, which starts June 11.
In total, Goodyear will supply 27 LMP2 cars, consisting of 15 World Endurance Championship (WEC) vehicles and 12 international LMP2 entries.
Under its exclusive agreement, the tire manufacturer will work in close collaboration with competing teams to ensure car setups and strategies are correct for the race, and to ensure tires are delivered in time for pit stops. Goodyear will work with the teams for the remainder of the season. At Le Mans 2021 – over a 24-hour period – one vehicle travelled 650km on a single set of Goodyear-branded tires around the 13.6km race circuit.
For the 2022 season, WEC LMP2 teams also have access to a single wet and dry tire from Goodyear, a transition away from the intermediate tires used previously. It will be the first time the two-tire strategy has been used by the manufacturer at Le Mans.
“We’ve worked hard to develop a wet tire with a much larger working range,” explained Mike McGregor, Goodyear’s Endurance Program manager. “We are happy with the performance of this tire and are confident drivers will relish the challenge of racing with a single compound of tire.”
McGregor continued, “With the introduction of a single-spec tire, our engineers have designed a tire that can handle the extreme heat of Bahrain to stints during the chilly nights at Le Mans. Also, from a sustainability standpoint, we expect fewer tires to be used over the course of the event.”
The Le Mans 24 Hours will begin at 04:00pm CEST on Saturday, June 11, 2022.
