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Michelin advances tire sustainability through racetrack testing and eco-friendly materials, aiming for 100% renewable content by 2050.
Michelin’s Innovative Approach to Tire Design
Sustainability may not be the first thing that comes to mind while watching cutting-edge race cars hurtle around the Road Atlanta track at triple-digit speeds. Engines wailing, tires squealing, and a general sense of winning the Motul Petit Le Mans endurance race- no matter the cost – pervade the scene. However, French tire giant Michelin sees things differently and would tell you that motorsports is, in fact, the ideal platform for innovation on the sustainability front. Specifically, with its 2026 range of Pilot Sport Endurance tires.
From the Racetrack to Tire Rack
Walking the paddocks and wandering the grounds at an event like the IMSA Sportscar Championship at Road Atlanta, there is a lot to take in. Cars, fans, race teams, and tires – so many tires. As you might expect, a 10-hour endurance race featuring 200-mph carbon fiber sleds requires a huge number of tires. All of which you can see being shuffled around on carts, mounted on wheels, and mercilessly tortured on the track.
Considering this is just 1 of 11 key IMSA races annually, all of which Michelin provides tires for, you can start to imagine the volume of rubber being raced. According to Michelin, that number was around 30,000 just a few years ago. For anyone concerned about sustainability, this should raise some eyebrows. So, when Michelin notes that figure is currently closer to 10,000, the claim by CEO Matthew Cabe about being “more than a tire manufacturer” seems a fair assessment.
Now, as Matthieu Bonardel, Director of Michelin Motorsport, notes, “It would be tempting, faced with the technical and sporting success we enjoy with our current range, to choose stability.” In other words, Michelin is not required to push this sustainability effort, and, frankly, there is ample financial incentive to continue selling as many tires as possible. Instead, the tire manufacturer chooses to tap its deep pool of motorsports expertise in order to deliver real change.
Michelin’s Commitment to Sustainability
At the moment, Michelin is using 31% renewable and recycled materials in the construction of its tires. That is set to hit 40% by the end of this decade and 100% by 2050. These are ambitious goals that go hand-in-hand with wider industry efforts like pushing the envelope on future EVs, but should Michelin make it happen, it will have achieved a truly circular manufacturing process.
To get there, the tire maker starts with simulators using a combination of real-world data, finite element analysis, and Formula 1-based TameTire software modeling. It can then test these findings on the track, at events like the Motul Petit Le Mans. The ability to put research to work in the real world and gather results in the span of a single weekend dramatically accelerates the development process.
Shortened R&D time translates to improved sustainability, to be sure, but it is the material used in the manufacturing process that really drives the company’s “All-Sustainable” mantra. On the renewable side, materials include natural latex from trees, vegetable oils, orange peels, and rice husks. According to Cyrille Roget, Michelin’s Scientific & Innovation Communication Director, those husks are an almost perfect replacement for chemically sourced silica and would otherwise be discarded.
As for recycled content, the list runs from steel and polymers to carbon black and pyrolysis oils. Those latter two components come from Michelin’s partnership with Enviro, which breaks down tires used in the FIA World Endurance Championship for use in the production of new tires.
Racing Inspires Every Tire
Though most will never pilot a 680-horsepower Grand Touring Prototype to the podium at an IMSA race, all of this focus on improving sustainability at the track does trickle down to Michelin’s consumer-facing business. And when you consider that Michelin produces nearly 200 million tires globally, these concepts take on greater meaning.
Reducing development time, improving tire safety, increasing durability, and manufacturing tires using a circular process matter whether you’re looking to set a new PR at the track or earn better fuel economy on the street. Michelin is clearly serious about hitting that 100% renewable and recycled material target over the next 25 years, and I, for one, am interested to keep an eye its progress.
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