Drift ice with the real Michelin man

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“The surface is constantly changing, so I have to adjust my inputs at every corner. . . Jérôme Haslin chats from the driver’s seat in a Porsche 911. We are currently going sideways at 110 km/h. On a layer of ice. “At first it’s impossible to handle a skid without a teacher”, he explains about the skills needed to drive in these conditions. “If you’ve never snowboarded before, you need to be taught. Driving on the limit is the same. You have to follow some steps. The first is how to manage your arms. You will never be able to hold it if you don’t have the proper technique. The best way to learn is to drive on a low-grip surface, such as snow. It helps you understand the feeling of the car as the oversteer is more progressive and smoother.”

It is a necessity for racing drivers have superhuman abilities to multitask. They have to process hundreds of things at once: analyzing data from their engineers as they overtake, making small adjustments to the steering wheel while adjusting the brake balance. Holding a conversation in the middle of a power slide is just one of Haslin’s many abilities. Except that his main profession is not that of a runner. He is MichelinsThe head of testing, tasked with developing new tires for the wheels of cars made by clients such as Ferrari, Aston Martin and Porsche.

I met Haslin at Michelin’s Arctic Proving Ground in Ivalo, Finland. It’s a massive facility where all of the brand’s winter tires are tested, but it’s low-key and, apart from a small sign at the entrance, the relatively humble-looking cabins and warehouses leave no trace of the intense levels of development that went on. they perform here.

Haslin, 58, looks every inch a race car driver with his deep tan, sunglasses, and easy smile: part Carlos Reutemann, part Jean-Paul Belmondo. As a young man, he hoped to compete as a racing driver, but quickly realized that racing would be impossible for him: “My father was not a rich man and when you race, you need to have a big budget.” Instead, he came up with a job that driving would “pay for.”

After studying engineering at Besançon’s SupmicroTech-ENSMM university for five years to appease his parents, Haslin set out to become a test driver for Michelin. Initially his experience kept him isolated, and the company accepted him in 1990 as a tire designer, until he was awarded a place on the test driving team.

“I was lucky. I started in 1995 with Ferrari and I’ve been the only driver working with them ever since. I’ve driven every model since ’95.” to Aston Martin, developed tires for the Bugatti Chiron with which it recorded a top speed of 429 kmph (“you know if you lose the car at that speed, it’s over”), and tested with Fernando Alonso in the top-secret Formula 3000 project Michelin in the early 2000s.

Regardless of whether a car has an internal combustion engine, Haslin’s job remains the same. He tests and develops tires designed for specific car models, with the goal of making them as efficient and safe as possible, while maximizing the car’s performance. Each tire project is carried out in collaboration with the automaker, and Haslin works in tandem with each brand’s test driver. Tires are put to the test, from braking in the wet and snow to mountain driving in the Alps, with hundreds of hours behind the wheel required before completion. “Because of my engineering background, I can more easily translate my perceptions into physical qualities that the patient can directly understand. [Michelin] tire designer [back at the factory]. The designer then uses this information to modify the architecture, tread pattern or materials of your tire.”

Do you have a favorite project? He shrugs. “I like all sports cars, if they have a lot of power. The SF90 with Ferrari was a nice project, 1,000 CV. Even the 296 GTB was very nice. The Porsche 911 GT3 RS and GT4 RS were also a lot of fun. I have more difficulty with electric carsdue to the weight”.

The switch to electric vehicles may be crucial to reducing global emissions, but Haslin has yet to be swayed by its charms. “A Ferrari is not a car. It is something of luxury, designed for emotion”, he affirms. “It’s the reason you have the sound, the gearbox, the handling. How will they evoke emotions when they are electric? Even the new Porsche 911 has a 3.0-liter turbocharged engine that isn’t quite as atmospheric, but it does keep some noise and has a gearbox. Cars have changed a lot in my time. Now every new car is easy to drive. ”

After 30 years doing the same job, I wonder if Haslin is bored. He has access to the best and most advanced automobiles on the planet and has the unique perspective of knowing the strategy of each of the major automobile manufacturers for the foreseeable future. But after talking to him I realize that this is not what keeps him going; It’s the race within the race.

“It is a competition between us, Pirelli and Bridgestone. It’s a little war. I know the Pirelli Porsche driver very well, the Pirelli Ferrari driver. Sometimes I get to Maranello and the Pirelli truck is next to ours. So I know that if our tires are not good it is because the Pirelli are better. I need to be at the same level or above everyone else. The goal is to finish first.”