F1 Tire Supply Competition
Hankook Tire CEO Cho Hyun-bum is competing with Italy’s Pirelli Tire, the world's fifth largest tire manufacturer based on revenue, to secure an exclusive tire supply right for Formula One (F1).
F1 is the highest class of open-wheeled auto racing boasting the highest speed levels among formula races. When Hankook Tire wins the bid, it will be a good opportunity to promote the company’s high technology abroad.
According to Hankook Tire and US-based tire newspaper Tire Business on Sept. 11, Hankook Tire Co., South Korea's largest and world's seventh largest tire maker, has recently submitted its bid to be the race tire supplier for F1 racing for the 2020-23 seasons.
Pirelli currently supplies tires for F1 racing but the contract ends in 2019. Pirelli also handed in its bid to renew the contract. Accordingly, Hankook Tire is in competition with Pirelli to become the tire supplier for F1 racing. F1 has been supplied with tires from a single company from 2007.
Hankook Tire CEO Cho Hyun-bum is known to be a huge fan of motorsports. He attended every single car racing that took place in the metropolitan area last year, showing affection for cars.
Hankook Tire has been supplying its tire products to high performance motorsport championships. The company also exclusively supplied racing tires to British high performance sports car manufacturer for 2018 Radical Asia Cup and 2018 Radical Korea & Lotus Cup events this year. Previously, it had an exclusive right to supply its tires to motorsport championships in Europe and North America hosted by Radical, such as the European Masters, North American Masters, Challenge Championship and Radical SR1 Cup.
In addition, Hankook Tire has been recognized as having the best tire technology in 40 motorsport championships around the world, including Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) touring car championship in Germany.
When Hankook Tire holds a dominant position in the bidding war, the world’s seventh largest tire manufacturer in terms of sales will defeat the fifth largest.