Watch - Michelin’s Le Mans tyre from conception to victory
Ever wondered what it takes for a tyre to win Le Mans?
The 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours was not only won by a Michelin-shod Porsche 919 Hybrid, every single LMP1 car and more than half of the race’s finishers used the French tyremaker’s rubber.
The 2015 race was memorable for many reasons, not least because it was Porsche’s first overall win on the Circuit de la Sarthe since 1998. But it was also a race contested by a wide variety of diverse and innovative machinery, battling through the day and night in ever-changing conditions.
For Michelin, the 2015 race was an overriding success. Aside from the victory, its tyres performed consistently and reliably, and as a result, were rarely mentioned in the race’s coverage. So in order to give its tyres the attention they deserve, Michelin has produced this video to follow its Le Mans rubber from digital conception to the race.
A short video is never going to tell the full story – omissions include the countless hours of research and development and thousands of testing laps – but the video does at least provide a tiny glimpse into the journey a Le Mans winning tyre makes.
