The Yokohama ADVAN team
YOKOHAMA ADVAN IS BEST REGARDLESS OF THE WEATHER


Media information: 25 July 2007


Europe's recent severe weather is bound to play a part in this weekend's round 13 and 14 of the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) at Anderstorp, Sweden but official tyre supplier Yokohama ADVAN is ready.

With rain predicted throughout the weekend, Yokohama engineers will keep a close eye on the skies, studying temperature variations and making sure they are prepared should the heavens open.

"If you imagine the roughness of the road, you want the rubber to key in as best it can to get grip and a tyre does that best when it is soft," explains Ian Beveridge, Yokohama Technical Consultant.

"That means there is an optimum compound consistency to be reached within an optimum amount of time. It's our job to make sure that window is as great as possible.

"When a dry tyre is working it gets relatively hot and becomes softer but in wet conditions you cannot get the heat with the water on-track cooling the tyre down and cars tend not to race so fast. The average temperature for a dry tyre is 100 degrees with a rain tyre averaging 50 degrees."

The difference between dry and wet tyres is such that drivers must alter their technique significantly to make best use of limited grip.

"Going from a dry race to wet conditions always causes big changes in the level of grip available," said Sweden's Rickard Rydell, guest driving for Chevrolet Lacetti this weekend.
"The track loses grip and becomes an unknown quantity that the drivers have to re-learn very quickly.

"When driving in the rain, you have to feel the grip more than anything, which means you rely heavily on the tyres to transmit that information to you. As long as you have tested in the rain beforehand, then it's not too much of any issue because you know how the car and tyres behave already. If this is the first time, finding the right set-up for the car will be more difficult."

Yokohama ADVAN will also be supplying WTCC partner series International Formula Master with control tyres this weekend in Sweden.