When the press release announcing Michelin as the sole supplier of tires to the Superbike championship World SBK from 2027 we were conversing with Piero Taramasso, the two-wheel competition manager at Michelin Motorsport.
The opportunity was too good not to try to find out a little more...
🎤 Piero Taramasso, we haven't seen the press release yet, but we've just learned, with great surprise, that Michelin will be supplying the Superbike tires. How did it happen, and what's in it for Michelin?
Piero Taramasso: “Yes, yes, that's right. It's not a big surprise, because following the announcement of the end of MotoGP, we had clearly announced that we wanted to stay on the motorcycle circuits, in world-class competitions, and therefore that we were open to everything and that we were looking at all the championships, because it could be Superbike, it could be Endurance, so high-level championships, world-class. And so we spoke with Dorna, which also manages Superbike, and finally we reached an agreement. It will be for 5 years, from 2027 to 2031, and then we will be the sole supplier for all the categories of the World Superbike.”
🎤 All categories?
“Yes, all categories, so it’s Superbike, Supersport, World Sportbike (WorldSPB) categorywhich will replace the Supersport 300, as well as the FIM Women's World Tour Championship (WorldWCR).
So it's good news for us and for all our teams, but it's not only good news: for me, it's also a logical next step. It's really a strategy that fits within the Michelin group, because Superbike is much closer to the series bikes. And so what we can do in the Superbike World Championship is use all the innovations that we've developed during the 10 or 11 years in MotoGP, all these innovations from MotoGP and MotoE, we can transfer some of them to the Superbike tires, and then really make a transfer to the road tires, to the Hypersport, Supersport ranges, and also to the slick tires for Trackdays, for the days
track. It seemed really logical to us, it seemed like a good gateway to get closer to the consumer, to the end user.”
🎤 You're starting from a field that's still very specialized, the top of motorcycling with MotoGP, but which is very limited at the same time. And there, you're going to have to broaden your scope since you're going to have to supply 4 categories, with much lower power for some. That's a lot of work, isn't it?
“Yes, it’s a lot of work, but hey, it’s a challenge, and we like challenges. It’s both a technological challenge, a business challenge because it brings us closer to the manufacturers and the end users, and also a logistical challenge, since there are many categories, there are many tires, with different ranges. So it’s going to keep us busy, but hey, we’re ready, we’re ready to do that. We have very good teams, I would say excellent teams, as we proved in MotoGP. We’ve learned a lot, so we’re going to try to bring all our expertise, our know-how acquired in MotoGP, to Superbike. Superbike is a good championship that grows every year, so we want to contribute even more to making it grow, whether in terms of the show or the technology.”
🎤 So if you like challenges, you'll be served because in MotoGP we won't be able to compare times since the bikes will change cylinder capacity, but in Superbike it will be possible to compare lap times, since the bikes won't evolve much, at least in the two higher categories. Does that motivate you?
"Yes, it motivates us. Afterwards, honestly, regarding the technical regulations, I think they will do something anyway. You know, every time there is a change in MotoGP, a reduction in performance in MotoGP, they automatically do it in Superbike too, because otherwise we could quickly find ourselves with Superbikes that will pfaster than MotoGP, and that wouldn't be great. So I think they'll do something.
Afterwards, the comparison is fine with us. That's not what scares us. What we want is to provide high-performance tires, durable tires, "sustainable" tires. The only thing we're going to change is that there will no longer be qualified tires like there are today. We, oWe are against that. For the environment, it is not at all what we should do. We should not make tires to do one lap, and then throw them in the trash. We are more for lasting performance. We will make soft tires, with which we can do Superpole, and then race with them, as we do today in MotoGP: we have soft specifications to use in qualifying and sprints. We have broken all the records with that, so we are not going to change our philosophy for Superbike.”
🎤 So you're going to make tires that can race at Phillip Island in one go?
“Yes, yes, we’re going to do that (laughs). We know that there, yes, it’s a complicated circuit. But hey, we’re already able to do it in MotoGP, where the bikes are very, very powerful. It’s not easy, but yes, we’re going to do it, to complete the races.”
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