If Pirelli Tires Are Good Enough For Pagani, They're Good Enough For Your Ford F-150

Pirelli has long been associated with performance, prestige, and premium carmakers, as well as the pinnacle of motorsport: Formula 1. But did you know it also supplies tires for the average American?

While it makes bespoke rubber for the likes of Pagani and Lamborghini, it also offers a range of replacement tires for mainstream brands such as Ford, Jeep, Kia, and Nissan. So, should you consider Pirellis for your next set of tires? You might want to consider it. And here's why.

Pirelli's new range of P Zero tires debuted last month at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, including the P Zero E aimed at electric performance cars and made using 55% recyclable materials, and the P Zero R and P Zero Trofeo RS range for supercars and hypercars.

These are cutting-edge tires designed for top-tier automobiles, like the Ford Mustang Dark Horse.

The Trofeo RS is an option (with P Zero as standard) on the Dark Horse as part of the Handling Package. It's also the tire of choice for the Pagani Utopia, so the track-focused 'Stang is in good company. But the choice to go with Pirelli rubber on a Ford muscle car isn't just unusual, it's also an indication from Pirelli of an entirely new demographic it's trying to break into.

Ford switched to Pirelli from Michelin for the Dark Horse after tasking both companies with developing a tire for the new car. And, according to Ford spokesperson Jay Ward, who we spoke to at Goodwood, after "testing them to destruction and beyond," the results were conclusive.

In terms of track performance, Ward said that "we can do around four 20-minute sessions on the Pirelli tire where we could only do three on the Michelin tire," with the Trofeo RS delivering "better durability and sustained performance over a period of time. It also delivers a quicker lap time."

It's curious, then, that while the Pirelli P Zero Trofeo RS is a special supercar tire, Ford has opted for Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R tires for its new Mustang GTD, which is targeting a sub-7-minute Nurburgring lap time.

Still, Ford seemed full of praise for the Pirelli rubber. "We worked extremely closely with these guys over a long period of time to develop this incredible tire [Trofeo RS]," Ward revealed. "We wanted an exceptional tire for the road. But a tire that could also handle it if you went to take it out on the track as well."

And in terms of road performance, Ward said that "one of the tire problems we had with the Mustang Mach 1 [that wears Michelin Pilot tires] is that it had a tendency to follow the camber of the road and follow ruts in the road. We found that the Pirelli tire is performing much, much better in that regard. So it's actually delivering a much more comfortable on-road driving experience."

It makes sense that Pirelli would be considered for performance cars, but its ties with Ford are expected to go beyond track-focused Mustangs. Pirelli is well aware that most Americans have crossovers, SUVs, and pickups parked in their driveways, which is why it developed the Scorpion All Season Plus 3 range of tires. It previously tailor-made the Scorpion ATR tires for the Ford F-150.

Andrea Casaluci has been at Pirelli for over 20 years and was promoted to CEO this month. We spoke with Casaluci at Goodwood, where he revealed that to grow its footprint (or should we say, contact patch) in America, the tiremaker has a strategy that entails partnering with OEMs like Ford, Tesla, and Rivian, creating products dedicated to the US market including replacement product lines, and growing production capacity with expanded facilities in Georgia and Mexico.

In terms of growth markets, Pirelli's new CEO said that "the United States for Pirelli represents, in my opinion, the biggest opportunity we have."

The US accounts for around 25% of Pirelli's global sales and is the fastest-growing region for the company.

While the US is the biggest market for 19-inch wheels and above, accounting for 50% of global sales, Casaluci admits that "Pirelli is still small in terms of market share if we compare with the other high-value markets - for example, Europe - and so I see a lot of opportunities. And we want to be closer to the US consumer."

Providing replacement product lines for the most popular models on the road is one way of doing that.

Pirelli works directly with OEMs, developing bespoke tires for specific cars like the Aston Martin DBX 707, McLaren Artura, and the Ford Mustang Dark Horse, but Pirelli is equally focused on providing replacement rubber for a range of brands and models.

"The consumer in the United States is not always looking for the original equipment, they are looking for mileage or different performance. That's the reason why we decided to enter with a dedicated product for the United States, called the All-Season Plus 3."

This third-gen of the Scorpion AS Plus 3 was introduced a couple of years ago and comes in almost 40 sizes, from 17 to 22 inches, fitting models like the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Ford F-150. More recently, the P Zero AS Plus 3 was launched for performance and sports cars.

Pirelli's dedication to making tires last longer, grip the road better in both dry and wet conditions, and providing a quieter ride is why the makers of the finest cars on the road turn to the Italian firm for every new product. That's something to consider the next time you need a new set of rubber for your truck.