Reading: Pirelli tyres extends World Rally Championshop for another year

The World Rally Championship has extended its contract with Pirelli for another year, before the FIA decides whether to open the series up to other tyres manufacturers again in 2012.

Surprisingly, the Italian tyres manufacturer was the only firm to tender for the next three-year contract - running from 2011-2013.

But it appears the FIA did not want to put all its eggs into one basket and sign another long term deal with Pirelli, so the two sides have agreed to a single season solution while the situation is under review.

A source close to the FIA said: “Obviously, it came as quite a surprise when Pirelli’s was the only tender for the next three years.

“What’s happened here is that the FIA has another year to decide which way to play the control tyre scenario for the World Rally Championship.”

Pirelli won the current contract to supply all tyres to the WRC in 2007, with an £10 million investment in the series, which includes paying for five drivers from around the world to compete in six rallies in the Pirelli Star Driver programme.

Alex Kapadia, Operations Team

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 11th, 2010 at 8:03 pm and is filed under Blogs, Pirelli. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.