YOKOHAMA TO SUPPLY FIA WTCC UNTIL 2009


Media information: 4 July 2007


Following an invitation to tender, the FIA World Motor Sport Council has appointed The Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. to supply control tyres for the 2008 and 2009 FIA World Touring Car Championships.

The Japanese manufacturer has been supplying the FIA WTCC, which sees race-bred production cars compete to become World Champion, since 2006.

"Working with the WTCC's teams and organisers has been a very positive and stable working relationship for us," said Yokohama Europe Motorsport Manager Matthijs Mathlener. "Everybody at Yokohama is very excited and proud about this contract continuation.

"Our aim now is growth for the championship and our brand. Winning the tender puts everything in a new perspective and gives us the last part of this season to come up with new strategies for the next two years."

Yokohama says working at such a high level of international motorsport has benefited the company two-fold. "The first is the marketing / communication aspect," said Mathlener. "We would really like to continue growing our brand in Europe and sponsoring the WTCC is a perfect platform for that.

"It's also about tyre development and that's as important as the marketing. We have our Japanese engineers at all the races. They work very closely with the teams, gathering various technical data, which all goes back to Japan where all data is used for further tyre development."



Driver testimonials


Andy Priaulx, reigning World Champion, speaking in Pau, France: "On a track where overtaking is so difficult, you need grip straight away to get a good start and the tyres did their job perfectly. They were consistent and even improved during the race so I'm happy with them."


Gabriele Tarquini, former Formula 1 driver, speaking in Zandvoort, The Netherlands: "The sand has been an issue all weekend, but I think the ADVANs work very well with our car. We generally tend to be very smooth on them."


James Thompson, two-times British Touring Car Champion, speaking at Valencia where he won both races. "The ADVANs stood up to the high temperatures really well. We got great performance from them despite the heat."


Felix Porteiro, BMW driver and race winner, speaking at Brno, Czech Republic: "The tyres were great during the race. The time we set on the second lap was the same we set on the last lap which shows how consistent the tyres are.