MICHELIN Total
Performance Award:
A €1,000,000 grant
to promote innovation geared towards sustainable mobility!
When
the Le Mans 24 Hours race happens in June 2014 in Europe, MICHELIN will introduce
the MICHELIN Total Performance Award -- a new competition that seeks to speed
up innovation in favour of not only performance on the racetrack but also in sustainable
mobility.
Originally
announced in June 2013, a grant will be awarded to the first team which
succeeds in fulfilling five criteria relating to performance, longevity and
energy efficiency. When these five conditions are met, one million euros will
be ploughed into the financing of research into sustainable mobility by an
independent academic institute.
The
award enjoys the backing of endurance racing’s governing organisations and
coincides with the turn taken by the discipline’s technical regulations from
this year.
The
initiative fits perfectly with the approach that Michelin has been championing
for many years now. According to Pascal
COUASNON, MICHELIN Motorsport Director, “In the world of motorsport,
Michelin is a technical partner which contributes to giving real meaning to the
discipline. In accordance with this principle, and in association with the
Automobile Club de l’Ouest, the MICHELIN Green X Challenge was introduced in
2009 as an integral part of endurance racing’s regulations. The objective of
the challenge was to reward the sport’s most energy-efficient competitors. The
MICHELIN Total Performance Award marks the next phase of the company’s
responsible involvement in motorsport, from both the societal and environmental
points of view.”
In
the same way that MICHELIN’s research specialists strive to combine seemingly
irreconcilable performance-related qualities in a single tyre as part of the
Michelin Total Performance plan, Le Mans competitors will need to produce a comprehensive
tour de force to win the MICHELIN Total Performance Award. “The idea is to
reward a unique achievement based simultaneously on the notions of exceptional
performance, longevity and energy efficiency,” stresses Olivier VIALLE, MICHELIN Motorsport’s Marketing Director.
The
five criteria that will need to be met to be able to claim the MICHELIN Total
Performance Award consequently focus on these notions:
• Criterion N°1: Victory
To
be considered for this prize, the team must win the Le Mans 24 Hours outright.
• Criterion N°2: Performance over a single lap
The
winning car must also post the fastest race lap.
• Criterion N°3: A new distance record
• Criterion N°4: Reduced fuel consumption
The
winner must achieve a fuel consumption saving of at least 15 percent over the
average amount of energy consumed by the LMP1 finishers in 2013.
• Criterion N°5: Low consumption of tyres
The
number of tyres used by the winning crew during the race must not exceed nine
sets.
The
five criteria clearly represent a significant challenge for the teams involved
in endurance racing. “This award has been created with the intention of it
being won,” says Olivier VIALLE. “We deliberately set ambitious criteria but we
believe they are achievable. Naturally, beating the distance record will call
for favourable circumstances, such as mild weather and few interruptions.
Meeting the tyre-related criterion stands out as a big challenge in itself
because the prototypes will use smaller tyres at Le Mans this year. Perhaps we
won’t see all five criteria met this year. If that is the case, the MICHELIN
Total Performance Award will be up for grabs again in 2015 and, if necessary,
in the years after that until it is won.”
The
MICHELIN Total Performance Award will go to the most efficient competitor,
irrespective of the tyre brand they use.
This
sort of award is something of a tradition at MICHELIN. As long ago as 1908, the
company proposed a prize of 100,000 Francs to the first pilot who succeeded in
taking off from Paris and landing at the summit of the Puy de Dôme mountain in
France’s Auvergne region. The prize-money – equivalent to €400,000 in today’s
money – was won three years later by the aviator Eugène RENAUX.
Today’s
MICHELIN Total Performance Award is a further sign of the company’s commitment
to sustainable mobility which also takes the form of ongoing research and a
history of initiatives such as the MICHELIN Challenge Bibendum which will this
year be organised in China.
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