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By Riccardo Tafà| Posted March 15, 2016 | In MotoGP, Sport News
Michelin is ready for the 2016 MotoGP season. Michelin will be heading to the Losail International Circuit for its return to MotoGP as the series kicks off under the floodlights at the Qatari track on Sunday 20th March.
Following three informative pre-season tests – including one in Qatar – Michelin has analysed all the data to make its decision as to the best tyres to take to the 5,380km track. The Losail International Circuit is situated in a rocky, desert location and as such the track can be very abrasive at times due to the sand that is blown off the surrounding area. This allied to the usually cooler temperatures that are experienced as the sun sets, all add to the challenges that supplying the optimum tyres for such conditions will present to the French company.
The Qatar race will see the introduction of 17” tyres and with a need to have a consistent grip and good durability, Michelin will take three front and two rear tyres to Losail for the race. The soft Power Slick – which will be identified by the white band – the medium Power Slick – which will not feature a coloured band for identification – and the hard Power Slick – yellow band – for the front. Along with the asymmetric soft Power Slick – white band – and the asymmetric medium Power Slick – no band – for the rear. There will be no Michelin Power Rain or Power Inter tyres in use as the riders will not run in wet or changeable conditions under the lights.
Built in less than a year and completed in 2004, the Losail International Circuit is located on the outskirts of Doha – Qatar’s capital city – and has been a regular on the MotoGP calendar since its completion. The first night race was held in 2008 and is staged beneath over 3,000 individual light sources on more than 1,000 structures, all powered by huge generators. This impressive array of lighting is designed to not only light the track, but deflect light away from the surface and then redirect it back, all aimed at avoiding glare from blinding the riders and giving them ideal visual awareness.
Track action at Losail begins on Thursday 17th March when the MotoGP stars will take to the circuit for the first free practice session. Two further free sessions will be held on Friday to decide which riders progress through to which qualifying session – held on Saturday evening. The inaugural race of 2016, and Michelin’s re-introduction in to the exciting arena of MotoGP, will take place at 21.00hrs local time (18.00hrs GMT, 17.00hrs CET) on Sunday 20th March, when the world’s best two-wheel racers will do battle over 22-laps of the challenging Losail circuit.
The Qatar race weekend will also see a Michelin press conference which will be staged at the circuit on Saturday 19th March, with Director of Michelin Motorsport, Pascal Couasnon in attendance, along with Michelin’s Head of Two-Wheel Motorsport Group, Nicolas Goubert and the Manager of the Two-Wheel Motorsport Group, Piero Taramasso, when the three will lay-out Michelin’s plans for the forthcoming season and answer any questions from the assembled audience.
Nicolas Goubert – Head of the Two-Wheel Motorsport Group:
“We are looking forward to the first race, because we have been getting ready for it for over a year. It has been a lot of hard work to get to this position and we are now prepared for competitive action. We are quite confident about heading to Qatar, because we learnt a lot during the test sessions that we had two weeks before the race. The riders were satisfied with the improvements we have made from the beginning of the season, and there was a positive feeling at the end of the test. Having a race at night gives extra issues, where we can encounter lower temperatures and the added difficulty of dew on the surface, plus the wind blast blowing sand on the track, making it quite abrasive and giving it a sandpaper effect, which impacts on tyre wear. Other than that the Losail track is not the most demanding for tyres in general, the toughest part lies between turns 10 and 14, where riders contend with a double left (10 and 11) and a triple right (12, 13 and 14), which is quite a difficult combination, but we have worked hard to give the riders the best tyres for this circuit and we are now excited to get into competitive action.”
Piero Taramasso – Manager of Michelin MotoGP Programme:
“We are all motivated to get back to Qatar and the first round, especially with it being Michelin’s return and the special atmosphere of this night race. We have been preparing for over a year-and-a-half and have worked closely with the teams, the riders and Dorna to provide the best tyres in readiness for the first race. Logistics are very important, because the Qatar event is not the easiest one to manage and all our consignments of tyres and equipment has to be shipped in containers, but we have prepared for that and we’ll be ready for the first race. We are really looking forward to getting back into MotoGP action”
Are you ready to explore the transformative power of athlete sponsorship for your brand? Click here to learn more about how sponsorship can help brands grow and thrive in the exciting world of motorsports.
Managing Director for RTR Sports, Riccardo graduated in law at the University of Bologna. He began his career in London in PR, then started working in two and four-wheelers. A brief move to Monaco followed before returning to Italy. There he founded RTR, first a consulting firm and then a sports marketing company which, eventually, he moved back to London.
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Read MoreIn an era where it is possible to get anywhere with a click, there is a strong temptation to approach teams and properties directly for sponsorship projects.
By doing so, we are convinced that we are shortening the value chain, saving time and money. However, these DYI methods are anything but risk-free and what initially appears to be a competitive advantage soon turns into a problem that is difficult to resolve. That’s why there are agencies. And this is why you should rely on us for your sponsorships.
When first approaching a sponsorship or sports marketing project, it is difficult to know immediately which stakeholders are correct, what the decision flow is, and what the right timelines are for each process. Sports is a very specialized field of action, and fitting effectively into its paths can take a lot of time and therefore money. We, on the other hand, know referents and spheres of action and know who to talk to, when and how. So you are also more effective.
Sports is an immense passion, and for our heart colors we would be willing to do anything. But business is a different business, and it is important to make the best possible strategic decisions based on independent research, statistics and reliable data. A sports marketing and sports sponsorship agency like RTR has an objective, 360-degree picture of the scenario and can tell you what is really best for you: which sport, which athlete, which team. This is because we possess a great deal of data and information on ratings, segmentation and attitudes. Because the numbers don’t lie. Never.
Activations are the real heart of sports sponsorship. Without them, there remains only a blank sticker on a motorcycle, car or uniform and no contact with the public, no emotional connection, no impact on the bottom line. Then how do you do it? It certainly won’t be the teams or the athletes who will help you leverage sponsorship and enjoy the many marketing rights you have paid for. To bring out the best in a sports marketing project you need an agency that knows how to use sponsorship to engage the fanbase on the Web, to reach out to Shopping Centers, to organize hospitality, to develop B2B and B2C opportunities, and to get “your” athletes in front of millions of potential consumers.
Would you ever go to the dealer who sold you the car and ask if the competitor’s car is better? No, of course. So, how do you expect to get firm measurements of the effectiveness of your sponsorship if you do not rely on someone super partes? At RTR, we have always worked with independent third-party agencies that allow us to know the return on any exposure of your brand on TV and in the media. In addition, we believe in calculating ROI as the ultimate measure of your success-so we can tell you for every penny you spend how much you are making.
We have been involved in sports sponsorship and sports marketing for more than 15 years. We are consultants in the sense that our goal is to maximize your investment, but we are also an agency that manages the project from start to finish. We have been doing this since 1995 with passion and professionalism, following three principles that have become cornerstones of our business: independence, verticality and transparency.
I would like to highlight the fact that one of the qualities of RTR is its great ability to approach the sponsorship scenario strategically, together with its passionate attitude, its amazing enthusiasm for solving problems, and its high level of professionalism.
Gianluca Degliesposti
Executive Director Server&Storage EMEA
Eurosport is truly delighted with its business relationship with Riccardo Tafà, who has become extremely popular, thanks to his detailed knowledge of the sports marketing sector and his highly diligent attitude to work.
Francois Ribeiro
Commercial Director
Passion and Expertise are the features that I have found in RTR since the very beginning. Serious and reliable professionals but also very helpful, nice and open-mind people, willing to listen and compare different ideas. All the values in which RTR believes make this agency a partner, not just a supplier, a partner with whom we have had the opportunity to achieve significant commercial results in term of success and image.
Luca Pacitto
Head of Communication
We have been working with RTR Sports Marketing for over 10 years. The objectives and the programmes of collaboration continue to be renewed and to grow with mutual satisfaction. I believe RTR is a team of great professionals led by Riccardo Tafà, who I consider a manager of exceptional skills and with a great passion for his work.
Lucio Cecchinello
Team Principal
I have known and worked with Riccardo Tafà since 1995 when we collaborated for the first time on a project for the Williams Formula 1 team. Several clients followed. After leaving Williams to work for Gerhard Berger then owner of the Toro Rosso F1 Team, I turned again to Riccardo to seek his help in finding a tool supplier for the team and Riccardo duly obliged with an introduction to USAG, a partnership with Toro Rosso which endured for five years. I recently started a new role as Group Commercial Director for the renowned Andretti Autosport organisation and I find myself working with Riccardo once again on a number of interesting projects. Why has this relationship with Riccardo endured ? He’s smart, knows the commercial side of sport inside out and back to front and he’s honest and trustworthy. Riccardo Tafà is a “doer” not a “talker”: in over 20 years I have never had a dispute either with him or with a company that he has introduced and each partnership introduced by Riccardo has delivered quantifiable ROI to rights holder and sponsor alike. I can think of no better testimonial of Riccardo’s diligence, knowledge, contact base and hard work than that.
Jim Wright
Group Commercial Director
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