Bridgestone's Potenza tire showcases supercar potential

NASHVILLE—For those who spend their Sunday afternoons cornering at more than 100 mph in their Porsche 911 Turbos, the aftermarket just opened up for tires.

Bridgestone is "standing on the shoulders of giants" with its newest street-to-track release, the Potenza Race, released last year for the prestige car enthusiast whose vehicle might see daylight a handful of times per year.

And when it does, the trip is usually to the track.

The Potenza Race replacement line was launched May 1, while the OE line launched in June 2021 for placement on the Lamborghini Huracon and Cupra Leon "hot" hatchback.

"Results of that partnership were fantastic," said Ian McKenney, senior product manager for Bridgestone Americas Inc. "The tread pattern, compounding and material design were already there. We are standing on the shoulders of giants with this release."

The Potenza Race tire, designed to fill a gap in Bridgestone's portfolio on the performance side, is off to a hot start on the track.

The new semi-slick, Bridgestone said, provides drivers with top-notch control on the track in dry conditions, among key competitors, including the Goodyear Eagle F1 Supersport R (size 245/35 ZR19), Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 Connect (size 245/35 R19) and Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R (size 245/35 ZR19).

The tires were track-tested by independent company TUV SUD (TUV Report No. 713231330) and run on a Mercedes AMG A45, a hatchback.

The Potenza Race tire had the fastest lap time and shortest braking on dry pavement among those tires cited, according to the TUV SUD report.

The tire also performed well with track longevity, "empowering motorsports lovers to perform and push their limits," McKenney told sister publication Rubber News.

"We have a foundation in grassroots racing, but we really did not have anything for the supercar space," McKenney said. "Those cars that are only going to see sunny days on the track."

McKenney added that the new replacement tire is expected to be a low-volume, high-margin product.

"In terms of moving the needle from a business perspective, we don't expect this tire to alter business forecasts," he said. "But it does allow us an outlet to demonstrate our technical capabilities—and how far we have come in a short amount of time. Everyone has summer performance products.

"But it's hard to say you're one of the best and not demonstrate it in some way."

Perhaps most importantly, from a marketing perspective, the Potenza Race has the potential to be a halo product.

"Now that we have it, it gives us the power to point to other products," McKenney said. "It is easy for us to do that from a grassroots (racing) side. We have seen huge success in the grassroots leagues, and we already have seen how that affects those products. Now, people have an option to replace their tires on their Ferrari, where that did not exist before.

"Maybe they say, hey, now I want my daily driver to be on Bridgestone tires. What this does is bring credence to cascading products. It is a route to show what we can do."

Under early development, the Potenza Race street-to-track tire was developed and manufactured in Europe.

The replacement was offered about a year after the OE fitment was certified.

"We accelerated development because we already had the pattern and compounding," McKenney said. "You spend enough time taking a digital twin of a tire, and that accelerates the process."

The Potenza Race replacement is available in 17- to 20-inch rim sizes for a range of street-legal supercars. Potenza Race is designed to support Maserati, Ferrari, Porsche, McLaren, Lamborghini, BMW M, Audi RS, Mercedes AMG and others.

"The Bridgestone Potenza Race tire is the culmination of years—even decades—of experience in high performance," said Emilio Tiberio, Bridgestone EMIA's chief operations and chief technical officer. "We created this tire for motorsports lovers, speaking to them and learning what they demand from their dream track tire, and we're thrilled to launch our first-ever semi-slick tire for the replacement market offering unrivaled performance to all track enthusiasts."

The "digital twin" that McKenney cited greatly assisted the time-to-market for these niche tires.

Bridgestone employed virtual reality in the development process, bringing 30 tire specifications down to five or six iterations.

The Potenza Race tire development was made shorter, yes, but more sustainable as well thanks to VR.

The process used 33 percent fewer raw materials, with 6,000 fewer miles of tires tested.

"It is getting much, much better," McKenney said of VR production and development. "In doing some VR testing with rolling resistance when I worked in Akron ... the computational power was not quite there.

"Cornering and other analytics were kind of in their infancy. But I am very confident now that when it comes to characterizations—rolling resistance, stopping distance and cornering force—if the model is better than option a, b or c, that is how it will be in the real world."

As McKenney explains it, this latest addition to the Potenza tire lineup is the result of Bridgestone's "long history and expertise in motorsports and high performance."

The Potenza lineup began with Bridgestone's tire compounding expertise in the elite Formula One racing series.

The world's second-largest tire manufacturer supplied tires to Formula One from 1997 to 2010—including six titles for Michael Schumacher and Ferrari.

"The tire has been designed based on the results of extensive market research led by Bridgestone, focusing on what circuit drivers expect from an ultra-high performance tire," McKenney said.