WorldSBK's tire landscape is set for its biggest shakeup in more than two decades, as reported on Crash.net, and it starts with the disappearance of a fixture that has defined the paddock's weekend format since 2004. Michelin two-wheeled motorsport boss Piero Taramasso has confirmed that when the French manufacturer takes over as WorldSBK's sole tire supplier in 2027, the qualifying tire concept is gone.
The 2027 season brings a straight trade at the top of both premier road-racing series: Michelin departs MotoGP for WorldSBK, while Pirelli heads the other way. For MotoGP, changing rubber is significant. For WorldSBK, the shift is arguably larger, since Pirelli has been the championship's sole supplier since 2004. MotoGP itself hasn't run a dedicated qualifying tire since the 2000s, well before Michelin became that paddock's sole supplier in 2016. Pirelli has offered a qualifying tire in various forms and quantities over the years, with the current formula handing riders multiple SCQ tires per weekend for use in Superpole and the Superpole Race at circuits where the compound is deemed suitable.
Taramasso framed the decision to axe qualifying tires around material use and expense. "We are focused on the strategy of cost and material sustainability," he said.
Intermediates Out
The qualifier isn't the only compound leaving the range - Michelin will not produce an intermediate tire either, with Taramasso pointing to its narrow window of usefulness.
"There will be no intermediate tires: being of little or no use and usable in a very small window between dry and wet, we will not wear it," he said.
That leaves WorldSBK riders choosing between full dry and full wet rubber, a departure from the graduated options the grid has grown used to. For a series that races at circuits with famously changeable conditions, dropping the intermediate is the sort of call that will draw scrutiny once the weather turns.
Asymmetric Tires In
Where Michelin is adding options is in construction. Taramasso confirmed the 2027 range will include asymmetric tires aimed at specific venues.
"[The range of tires will] include asymmetrical options, especially suitable for tracks such as Phillip Island," he said. "We will then see if we can introduce them at Estoril and Most as well."
Phillip Island's long, load-heavy left-handers have long punished symmetrical rubber, so an asymmetric option there is a logical starting point - despite the fact the popular Australian track is already off the MotoGP calendar for next year and is rumored to be off the WSBK calendar in the years to come also. Nonetheless, the asymmetric option makes sense at other tracks that punish one side of the tire a lot more than the other.
As for weekend allocation, Michelin plans to give teams options. "In each race we will offer three specifications to be mounted in front and three to be mounted in the rear," Taramasso said. "The riders will choose according to their respective preference."
That framework - three front and three rear specs, no qualifier, no intermediate - mirrors the race-tire-focused approach Michelin already runs in MotoGP. How WorldSBK's riders adapt to setting Superpole times on race rubber will be one of the defining storylines of 2027.
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