How are kart tyres tested?

HOW ARE KART TYRES TESTED?

Gianluca Covini

07 April 2025 • 18 min. read

We had exclusive access to a test day of the tyre manufacturer Vega. To find out how the Italian company's driver-testers, engineers and mechanics carry out track tests of new tyres, guided by an innovative and advanced network of sensors. Gianluca Covini tells us all about it

I am working on the collection of material for the drafting of two technical articles on kart tyres (“Tech Talk | Kart tyres (pt. 1) - Technical and structural characteristics” e “Tech Talk | Kart tyres (pt. 2) - Functional characteristics” published respectively in July and September 2024", editor’s note). However, after obtaining a good amount of information, I realised that some details were still missing on the latest generation compounds. To fill this gap, I obtained the contact of the right person: Jules Credeville, Head of Research and Development at Vega, a leading company in the production of karting tyres. During the interview, I got an unexpected proposal: "If you want to see up close how we develop tyres and collect some data directly in the field, in a few days we will be on the track at the Cremona Circuit (the Italian kart track in San Martino del Lago, about 130 km from Milan) to test the new tyres and technologies for the future and compare them with the Vega XM4 CIK PRIME, the tyres that are currently CIK-FIA approved. Why don't you come? It would be the perfect opportunity to go into more detail on the topic in a practical way". An invitation that was impossible to refuse. I accepted without hesitation.

Founded in 1980 by Sergio Mantese, Vega is an Italian company specialised in the production of karting tyres, based in Saronno, Lombardy, in northern Italy. In the present day, Vega is part of OTK Kart Group but is still led by the Mantese family.

It was Jules Credeville who invited us to attend the Vega tests. An engineer specialised in the development of tyre compounds, he began his career at Michelin, where he worked for 10 years: four at the head office, optimising the industrial production of the compounds, and six on the track, focusing on the development of tyres for the World Rally Championship (WRC) and the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), with a focus on the Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) and Gran Turismo Endurance (GTE) classes. Since 2018 he has been working for Vega, where he is responsible for the Research and Development department.

The author of the article, Gianluca Covini. Born in 1984, he is a mechanical engineer specialised in land vehicles and has been working as a journalist since 2015. In addition, he is also a safe and sporty driving instructor, having gained various racing experiences, mainly in karting and touring cars.