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MRF Tyres, 2025 Season

MRF Tyres, 2025 Season

by January 20, 2025 0 comments

Well, that’s just about the last of the Yoko’s used up, so it’s on to our new tyre for 2025. The MRF tyre was first seen at Kartmania Silverstone in December, but it was the culmination of research and negotiations that took the best part of a year.

Some of you probably don’t know that I was once part of a team that won British and European Championships as well as the Le Mans 24-hour event in karting. An old team-mate from those times had contacts and indeed sometimes worked in India, and he set up an initial contact for me with the Madras Rubber Factory, better known around the world as MRF tyres. They are a huge, multi-national company that supplies OEM tyres to all the world’s major manufacturers, be that of cars, trucks and coaches but also to rally and racing vehicles.

They were keen to enter the UK kart market but of course, the compounds used in the temperatures found in Indian karting vary tremendously from what we are likely to be driving here in the UK. After some exchanges of info and tyre samples, prototype tyres eventually found their way here for us to test. We tested them in the same way as we had other tyres previously, with two or three teams involved, swapping wheels around, checking lap times and getting feedback from drivers as we went. The upshot of all of that was that we felt the tyre could be suitable for UK endurance racing, but there was a snag. The circumference of this tyre was slightly smaller than the Yoko, which was already less than the Bridgestone we used to use. It was felt that some chassis damage might result, and we fed this back to MRF.

They agreed that they would make two new sets of “drums” (the apparatus used to manufacture the tyre) to a larger size as per our request, if we committed to using their tyre at RHPK and the Armed forces Championship. In all honesty, we had little choice as there really was no other suitable endurance tyre on offer. I really must thank Brian and Peter from Monkey, who have signed a long-term contract and agreement to utilise these tyres for some years going forward. I need hardly mention this also required a substantial “up-front” payment from them, so all credit to Monkey for making this a reality.

Now, here’s the rub! The drums are very specialised pieces of precision equipment and the manufacture of these was not a facility MRF possessed so they had to be outsourced. We completed the agreement with MRF quite late in the year, at which point they ordered the revised drums to be manufactured.

Due to production schedules, they would not be ready in time for MRF to get our larger-size tyres into the UK for the start of the season.

MRF did offer to supply the smaller tyre for the start of the season, but Monkey felt that this could lead to difficulties later in the year with different-sized tyres on the grid. What to do? There are enough Yokohama tyres available to see us through the first couple of rounds, by which time MRF have assured us that they will have our newly-sized tyre in the country.

When the tyres arrive in the country, I will do my best to ensure that everybody gets an equal opportunity to test the new rubber before their first competitive introduction. I know that some might be concerned with Monkey’s access to these tyres, for either testing or race events, but if these concerns become a reality I can and will put measures in place to allay any fears.

Let’s also be clear, we have not yet agreed a compound for the wet tyre. MRF were supplied with a Bridgestone and Yokohama wet tyre and they have submitted wet tyres for us to test (having analysed the compounds of these two wet tyres), but we have not yet had the opportunity yet to do so. We do still have a supply of Yoko wets, which we will continue to use in the interim.

Will these new tyres work? I honestly can’t say. One thing is almost certain, your chassis set-ups for the Yoko will, in all likelihood, need attention in understanding how to get the best from this new rubber. I heard a lot of concerns and complaints when we first went on to the Yoko, which gradually faded as the tyre/chassis relationship became more understood, and I imagine there might be some raised voices initially on this occasion. The reality is, this is the tyre we are going to have to live with for the foreseeable future. If it is faster or slower, it will be the same for all competitors, so essentially the racing shouldn’t change.

Let’s remain positive and look forward to another great series of races at RHPK in 2025.

Kelvin.

 

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