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1920px-Logo Pirelli

Location: Milan, Lombardy, Italy

Founded: 1872

Founder: Giovanni Battista Pirelli

Key People:

Li Fanrong (Chairman)

Marco Tronchetti Provera (Executive Vice Chairman and CEO)

Owners:

  • Marco Polo International Italy S.r.l. (ChemChina) (37.01%) (China)
  • Investitori istituzionali italiani (27.32%) (Italy)
  • Camfin S.p.A. (Marco Tronchetti Provera) (14.1%) (Italy)
  • Silk Road Fund (9.02%) (China)
  • Tacticum Investment S.A. (5.64%)
  • LongMarch (3.68%) (China)

Employees: 31,301

More About The Manufacturer:[]

Founded in Milan in 1872 by Giovanni Battista Pirelli, the company initially specialized in rubber and derivative processes and also made scuba diving rebreathers. Thereafter, Pirelli's activities were primarily focused on the production of tires and cables (for energy and telecommunications). In 2005, Pirelli sold its cable division to Goldman Sachs, which changed the new group's name to Prysmian.

In the 1950s, Alberto Pirelli commissioned the building of a skyscraper, Pirelli Tower, in the same Milanese area that housed the very first Pirelli factory during the 19th century.

In 1974, Pirelli invented the "wide radial tire", upon a request from the Lancia rally racing team for a tire strong enough to withstand the power of the new Lancia Stratos. At that time, racing tires were either slick tires made with the cross-ply technique (very wide tires with a reduced sidewall height), or radial tires, which were too narrow to withstand the Stratos' power and did not provide enough grip. Both were unusable for the Lancia Stratos, as the radials were destroyed within 10 km, and the slicks too stiff. Lancia asked Pirelli for a solution, and in 1975 Pirelli created a wide tire with a reduced sidewall height like a slick, but with a radial structure.

Subsequently, Porsche started using the same tires with the Porsche 911 Turbo.

In 1988, Pirelli acquired the Armstrong Rubber Company, which was headquartered in New Haven, Connecticut, for $190 million.

In 2000, Pirelli sold its terrestrial fiber optic cables business to Cisco and its optical components operations to Corning, for 5 billion euros. It invested – through Olimpia -part of the resulting liquidity to become a majority shareholder in Telecom Italia in 2001, maintaining this position until 2007.

In 2002 the company started a range of Pirelli branded clothing, watches and eyewear.

In 2005, Pirelli sold its Cables, Energy Systems and Telecommunications assets to Goldman Sachs and the newly formed company was named Prysmian. In the same year, 2005, Pirelli opened its first tire production plant in Shandong province, China. This was the beginning of the group's production complex in the country.

In 2006, Pirelli chose Slatina for its first tire production plant in Romania, extending the facility in 2011.

In 2010, Pirelli completed its conversion to a pure tire company by selling Pirelli Broadband Solutions and spinning off the real estate assets of Pirelli Re. Fondazione Pirelli was established in the same year to safeguard and celebrate the company's past and to promote business culture as an integral part of Italy's national cultural assets.

In March 2015, it was announced that Pirelli shareholders had accepted a €7.1 billion bid from ChemChina, together with Camfin and LTI, for the company. The transaction was completed and the company was delisted in November 2015.

In May 2017, it was announced that Pirelli returns to the world of cycling with a new road cycling tire range, Pzero Velo.

In September 2017, the company announced the will to sell up to 40 percent of its equity capital in an initial public offering as it plans to return to the Milan stock exchange in October.[28]

In March 2019 Pirelli announced a new range of mountain biking tires, called Scorpion. For the iRacing service, Pirelli tires are mostly found on the Kia Optima GX and the 2 F1 cars in the sim. The Pirelli Tires is on other cars in the service too.

In 2021 Pirelli introduced 18-inch tires for the new aerodynamic and technical changes for 2022 in Formula One.

Pirelli is the event title sponsor of the Spanish and Hungarian Grands Prix and sponsored the 2018 French Grand Prix. The company was the title sponsor of the Pirelli World Challenge from 2011 to 2018. Pirelli supported rally with their FIA Pirelli Star Driver program as an initiative to support young rally drivers. It was the sole supplier in the top tier of World Rally Championship in 2008–2010, and is now a co-supplier with Michelin. Since its first involvement in WRC in 1973, the manufacturer won 181 events, and produced 25 WRC Driver Champions including Colin McRae (1995), Petter Solberg (2003), Sebastien Loeb (2008–2010). Pirelli would again become the sole tyre supplier in all three tiers in 2021. Pirelli has also been a sponsor of rally and gymkhana driver Ken Block's Hoonigan Racing Division since 2010.

Pirelli has been the sole tyre supplier in Formula One since 2011 following Bridgestone's decision to withdraw from the role at the end of 2010. Pirelli previously competed in Formula One from 1950–1958, 1981–1986 and 1989–1991. Pirelli also supplies tyres for the FIA Formula 2 Championship (formerly GP2 Series), FIA Formula 3 Championship (formerly GP3 Series) and F1 Academy, that form the feeder series to Formula One. Pirelli's deal is due to end after the 2027 Formula One World Championship.

The Italian tyre manufacturer introduced a colour coding system to help identify the tyre compounds used by drivers during races. Each compound has its own colour, which appears on the sidewalls of the tyre. Since the 2019 season, Pirelli has used three colours to identify its dry-weather P Zero tyres: white for hard, yellow for medium, and red for soft. As well as the dry-weather slick tyres, there are two wet-weather grooved tyres: green for the intermediate and blue for the full wet. These tyres are branded Cinturato, a name that dates back to the 1950s. At the start of Pirelli's Formula One tenure in 2011, the company was given the technically challenging task of designing tyres that degraded rapidly in order to promote more pit stops and overtaking, with the aim of making the races more exciting and entertaining. However, the brief from the sport's organisers has changed over the years, as the cars themselves evolved with the introduction of the turbo hybrid era in 2014.

Pirelli has faced controversy on a number of occasions in Formula One, especially during the 2013 British Grand Prix, which featured multiple tyre failures. Pirelli subsequently changed the construction of the tyres to prevent further incidents, switching to Kevlar belts. At the 2015 Belgian Grand Prix, a tyre on Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari suffered from a blowout at 320 km/h (200 mph). Immediately after the race Pirelli claimed that excessive wear caused the blowout but following a more detailed analysis, the company said that in fact, a cut had caused the tyre failure. A number of major changes to the Formula One tyres were introduced for the 2017 season. The most obvious visual difference was an increase of width by 25%, both front and rear, increasing from 245-mm to 305-mm at the front and 325-mm to 405-mm at the rear. The actual rim size remained unchanged from the traditional 13 inches. The faster cornering speeds as a result of this change imposed significantly increased loads on the tyres. Pirelli was consequently asked to produce tyres with less degradation that were more resistant to overheating, for the fastest cars in Formula One history.

A far-reaching alteration to the Formula One technical regulations for 2022, covering every aspect of the car, prompted another significant change to the tyres. With an imminent move to 18-inch rims after more than 50 years of the 13-inch size, Pirelli's 2022 tyres maintain the same tread width as before, but diameter has increased from 660 millimetres to 720 millimetres. The sidewall height is also reduced to give the tyres a more modern low-profile look.

Previous Logos:[]

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