‘Best product ever’? Philipp Mendelski tells all about developing the SportContact 7

What exactly goes into the development of an ultra-high performance tyre? Continental’s Philipp Mendelski has the answers.

Talking life goals, overcoming conflicts, going the extra mile, and creating the ‘best product ever’, join us for an exclusive chat with the man who drove the development of Continental’s SportContact 7: Philipp Mendelski.

Who are you, what do you do, and how did you get into the world of tyres?

Hello, I'm Philipp Mendelski, Technical Customer Interface Manager at Continental.

How did I end up here in the word of tyres? I was always fascinated by vehicles, and cars have always been big part of my life. I met a lot of my friends at the car meets in my hometown which happened every Friday evening, so I was always connected to cars. If there was nothing else to do, you knew that’s where we’d be.

This meant I was thrilled to join Continental, where I started in truck tyres and eventually made my way into car tyres, and then up to UHP (ultra-high performance) tyres.

What was your role in the development of the SportContact 7?

One of my life goals was to be the Product Manager of the SportContact 7. I was involved with the project from the very first ideas, designs, and marketing plans, to where it is now. 

That’s something special because the product is so close to my heart, connecting my professional and private lives — back to those early car meet days having fun in my 6.2-litre V8 Mercedes C-Class. I poured my heart and soul into the project, and I'm very proud that it turned out so successfully. To me, that feels like something you may only be able to do once in your life.

The SportContact 6 was already a highly acclaimed tyre. What was the primary motivation behind developing its successor, the SportContact 7?

The SportContact 6 was already a great tyre, but we really wanted to push the limits with the 7. 

From the start we had a clear vision to develop the best summer tyre for every sporting vehicle configuration in the market, so we focused on street and track performance, both in dry and wet conditions.

We had a great team, brought great technologies together, and we pushed each other. Even if we achieved something, we didn’t stop. We’d want to go that extra mile and integrate things beyond the requirement book — and these moments of overachievement are something we’re very proud of.

The SportContact 6 was already a highly acclaimed tyre. What was the primary motivation behind developing its successor, the SportContact 7?

The development was based on extensive internal and external benchmarking, taking into account current global regulations, specific requirements from OEM customers, and the expectations of tuning manufacturers. From the beginning, the goal was to align technical development with real-world demands. We analysed market trends, performance standards, and customer expectations to define clear targets. Throughout the process, we remained in close exchange with vehicle manufacturers, performance specialists, and end users — always ensuring that development stayed focused on actual application needs.

How do you balance the 'Sport' aspect – performance, grip, handling – with the 'Contact' aspect – the everyday usability, safety, and longevity expected from a road tyre?

During development, there are always tyre conflicts, and it’s our job to overcome these. Normally, increasing one criterion means decreasing another at the same time, but by using newer, improved technologies you can sometimes overcome this, and increase the overall tyre performance.

With the SportContact 7, on the sport side you have top-notch grip and steering precision, but for everyday use you also have the ideal braking performance — so you can be sure that you have a very safe tyre. For everyday use we also increased the mileage and fuel efficiency, basically the overall economy of the tyre, meaning that although we are pushing in a sporting direction, it functions in the real world too.

Then there are temperatures. My petrolhead friends would always push for semi-slick tyres, say to help a Porsche 911 get its 700 hp down to the tarmac. Now, as these tyres are driven on the street, they must be able to perform in everyday temperatures.  But, feedback from my friends who use SportContact 7 is that they’ll come back to me saying, “Philipp, it's really great, we have more performance, it’s less noisy, it’s more comfortable…” 

Of course, if you roll up to a car meet and everyone's watching, then you might want to have semi-slick tyres because they do look cool. But for everyday street use, that might not make sense, and you’ll want a tyre that performs everywhere.

What sets the SportContact 7 apart from other tyres? Was there a key technological breakthrough you could single out?

From very early on, we had the concept to use a very soft, very grippy compound: the latest version of BlackChili. To ensure good handling, we had to counteract this softness. So we combined this compound with the stiffest pattern we ever had in our SportContact family — and together these technologies provided that ultimate leap, which really is something.

How much was driving feel considered in the development the SportContact 7? And how would you describe the driving feel?

Driving feel is the first thing a customer experiences when they get new tyres, so it was crucial to us. 

During that first moment when you leave the garage or dealership and you can still remember what your old tyres felt like, it’s important to us that you immediately get that ‘SportContact feel’. Responsive, safe, easy to control… That’s what we feel, and that’s what we want everyone to feel too.

We worked hard to tweak the tyre to perform and feel right on different vehicles. And being made in so many sizes we had to look at key vehicles and think: what is the weight of the vehicle? Is it front-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive? 

A BMW X3 and a Mini Cooper have very different requirements, so this is another area where we went the extra mile to modify the tyre. This complexity meant some of our people producing the different sizes thought we were crazy (and may not have been our best friends at the time), but now we’ve seen the results everyone involved is proud of what we achieved here.

How does Continental integrate sustainable practices into the development of a high-performance tyre like the SportContact 7?

At Continental, we have an overarching strategy to increase the share of renewed and recycled materials in our tyres, including the SportContact 7 — so there is a lot of effort going in there.

What’s the next big thing for high-performance tyre development? And how is Continental preparing?

Across the tyre market, the requirements around rolling resistance and tyre wear are increasing significantly, so we’ll need to continue to balance that with delivering outstanding braking performance, grip, and wet performance.

The requirements around rolling resistance and tyre wear are increasing significantly, so we’ll need to continue to balance that with delivering outstanding braking performance, grip, and wet performance.

EVs come with their own set of challenges. The increased vehicle weight means tyres need to handle higher loads, and interior noise becomes much more noticeable without the masking sound of an engine. That makes low noise levels a key requirement. These factors add complexity to tyre development, but it’s exactly this kind of challenge that drives us. Even improving something as advanced as the SportContact 7 is a task we’re more than happy to take on.

If you had to describe the SportContact 7 in just three words, what would they be?

For me, it must be ‘best product ever’ or even ‘life goal achieved’. The development of the SportContact 7 was such a crazy journey, and one that was such a pleasure to be involved in. 

It was really something outstanding in my life, and something that still makes me really proud. So, I think I’ll go with ‘best product ever’.

Conclusion

Thanks to Philipp, we've gained an eye-opening insight into the technical know-how and personal passion that drives the development of tyres like the SportContact 7, and we hope you have too. 

Now, proudly dubbed the 'best product ever', would you opt for the SportContact 7 to find that perfect blend of performance and everyday utility?