WTCR Tyre Talk with Goodyear’s Sebastian Trinks

The 2022 WTCR – FIA World Touring Car Cup season opener is just days away with a street race back on the calendar for the first time since November 2019. Goodyear’s WTCR Event Leader Sebastian Trinks looks ahead to what’s in store at Circuit de Pau-Ville.

This will be the first WTCR − FIA World Touring Car Cup street race since Goodyear became the official tyre supplier in 2020. What additional challenges do street tracks create?“They’re not just more challenging for us but also the drivers, the teams and also the engineers to set up the cars to work perfectly.

You always need to keep in your mind with street circuits that during the night or the day before the first track action it’s open public roads so all the normal cars, scooters, all these vehicles are driving there so in general the surface is dirty and can also be a bit slippery. The authorities will prepare the circuit very well by cleaning it at the end of each day and before the start of the next day but it’s still challenging.

Like usual we are working closely with the team engineers to help with the set-up of the cars to extract the perfect performance out of the tyres in all the different conditions we might face.” Ad/> While the track is cleaned each day, street tracks by their nature have more hazards than a permanent circuit. How do you prepare for this?“It depends from street circuit to street circuit but for sure there are higher kerbs compared to other race (Formula One) circuits, for example.