One of the key speakers at this year’s FIA Sport Conference is Pirelli’s Vice Executive Chairman and CEO, Marco Tronchetti Provera. During a session focussed on the passion for excellence in motor sport, he explored the intrinsic links between the Pirelli brand and the world of racing.

“To engage in motor sport means to go to the extreme of technology,” he said. “Providing innovation in both performance and safety is a continuous challenge – it creates an environment in our company where passion prevails. Today’s Pirelli wouldn’t be here without its long term involvement in motor sport.”

Looking at the practical side of the relationship Pirelli has with racing as the official tyre supplier of Formula One, he continued, “F1 for us is a way to test technologies in amazingly varied conditions. Every race weekend we gather a huge amount of information.”

With new regulations coming in 2017, there will be a visible change in the Pirelli F1 tyres, and Trochetti Provera continued by assessing the constant need to evolve and test products in a real-world environment.

“We are producing wider tyres for next year – a change that will affect hugely the performance of the cars. There is no substitute for the real world – while digital technology is increasingly important in the research into new products, nothing will ever be as valuable as the driver and car.”

Finally speaking about the significance of the incredible Lingotto setting for the FIA Sport Conference 2016, the Pirelli Chief Executive looked at ways we might recapture the passion for motoring that is, in his view, missing from the next generation. He concluded, “We have lost some of the passion for cars in the new generation – this is because sometimes we have lost a bit from the passion in the design of the cars. The beauty is not as important an element any more. There are exceptions to this of course, but it is something we should look at in the future.”