‘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.