Yokohama has announced that it is to continue to supply its Advan racing tires to the Super Formula Championship in Japan and is developing a tire using sustainable materials for introduction in 2023.
The supply of the environmentally friendly tires will be carried out in support of the Super Formula Next50 project which was announced in October 2021 by Japan Race Promotion (JRP), the company which runs the Super Formula series.
For several years the tire maker has been working on the development of sustainable materials for tire manufacturing, having previously exhibited research on technology to produce synthetic rubber from biomass and on recyclable thermo-reversible rubber.
Yokohama plans to use recycled rubber from scrap tires along with several naturally derived compounding agents, such as silica from rice husks and oil from oil palms and orange peels, for the production of the new racing tires. The materials chosen do not negatively affect the performance of the racing cars, Yokohama says.
The sustainable tires will be tested by JRP on the future formula racing car, with the development of the 2023 control tire scheduled for completion by the end of the 2022 Super Formula season.
Following the completion of the development program, Yokohama will continue to develop the racing tires with the goal of supplying control tires in 2025 that have a sustainable material content ratio of 35% or more without any effect on performance.
The Super Formula Next50 project is being promoted by several companies that share a common goal of creating a sustainable motorsports industry. Yokohama Rubber has been supplying the Super Formula Championship with control tires since 2016.
