Just two years after the market launch of its mountain bike tires, the Scorpion mountain bike range, Pirelli is working flat out on a new line designed specifically for gravity racing. On board: Fabien Barel, and he needs no introduction: The three-time world champion (as well as winner of a bronze and a silver medal) and seven-time French downhill champion retired from racing in 2015 and now works as a technician and consultant on various projects in the gravity world. He also tries his hand at E-Enduro races.

Barel's considerable experience in the gravity disciplines, coupled with his extreme riding sensibility and vast technical knowledge of all aspects and components of mountain biking, make him the ideal partner for Pirelli in the development and continuous improvement of the company's products. The new Scorpion tires, which have been specially developed for gravity racing, are already a reality at prototype level and have already been intensively tested by Barel himself. They can currently be found on the mountain bikes of some athletes and teams who will be using them in the Enduro World Series (EWS) and Downhill World Cup races. This means that the research and development work carried out by Pirelli technicians together with Fabien will already be put to the test in 2021.

Downhill has always been considered the most thorough and demanding laboratory in terms of product stress. It is the perfect and definitive test bench where tires are pushed to the limit in all aspects, from reliability to extreme grip. However, parameters such as absorption and low rolling resistance must not be ignored: These factors are increasingly important in the modern racing world, where the level of performance is so high and the differences between drivers so small that even the smallest improvements in performance can ride the world's strongest drivers from an anonymous position to victory.

This is a way of working in continuous product development that Pirelli knows well from other sports and which is also an integral part of the company's DNA: research and continuous development. The move into the downhill world is a natural step for Pirelli, given the wide range of disciplines from motocross to the World Rally Championship and all the other two- and four-wheel motorsports in which the brand is present.
"Pirelli's involvement in the world of mountain bike gravity racing is a great opportunity for everyone," says the French downhill icon, adding: "Pirelli is a world leader in tire production and also has an enormous sporting spectrum. And when it comes to racing, it's great for everyone to have the expertise of the best because it pushes the sport and performance forward. I'm a great believer in Pirelli's technical capabilities and its ability to interpret the needs of the mountain bike world in the best possible way. There is already a reliable range of Pirelli mountain bike tires on the market. My job is to complement them with models for racing, which will hopefully lead to the successes the company has already achieved in many other sports. Take Formula 1, motocross or superbike, for example. The clear goal for these new tires is to reach the top places on the podiums."