In collaboration with the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, Michelin has announced the winners of the global 2017 Michelin Challenge Design competition, “’Le Mans 2030: Design for the Win.”

Works by individuals and teams of designers from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, India, Portugal and Russia were among the winners and finalists selected by a jury of the world’s top automotive designers and industry experts.

The three winning designs, seven finalists and 10 honorable mentions were chosen from more than 1,600 registrants, representing 80 countries. Over the span of 16 years, Michelin Challenge Design has received a total of 9,901 entries from 123 countries.

“The winners of our 2017 Michelin Challenge Design presented numerous highly innovative features for the Le Mans race in the year 2030 and the quality of work from this year’s entries was truly outstanding,” said Thom Roach, vice president of original equipment marketing for Michelin North America. “We congratulate the winners for their thought-provoking, visually captivating designs for the world’s greatest endurance race, ‘Le Mans 24 Hours.’”

Winners of the 2017 Michelin Challenge Design:

• First place: Tao Ni of Wuhu, China, for “Infiniti Le Mans 2030”
• Second place: Daniel Bacelar Pereira of Vila Real, Portugal, for “Bentley 9 Plus Michelin Battery Slick”
• Third place: Kurt Scanlan of Toronto, Canada for “Cierzo C1“

Finalists of the 2017 Michelin Challenge Design (in alphabetical order):

• Mehdi Alamdari and Vahid Shahvirdi of Victoria, Australia, for “Audi R28”
• Carlos Eduardo de Carvalho of Sao Paulo, Brazil, for “Embraer P1 Phenom Hybrid with Michelin Tire Wings”
• Josh Gadomski of Caledon Village, Ontario, Canada, for “Hydracross”
• Guilherme Kataoka, Luiz Ortega and Marcelo Toledo of Sao Paulo, Brazil, for “Bentley Speed X”
• Vruttant Phatak of Maharashtra, India, for “Neuraura”
• Vladislav Semenov and Maria Ryadno of St. Petersburg, Russia, for “Bugatti Wimille”
• David Voltner of Zlin, Czech Republic, for “Citroën C030 LMP1“

“The Le Mans 24 Hours race has always been the theater of the greatest innovations for the motor car that are tried and tested during the mythical race for series production vehicles. The Michelin Challenge Design fits perfectly into our ongoing innovative process with Michelin, one of the Le Mans 24 Hours’ historic partners,” said Pierre Fillon, president of Automobile Club de l’Ouest. “I can understand how difficult it was for the judges to decide among the candidates given the quality of work sent in for the competition, which aims to predict what kind of car will race in the 2030 Le Mans 24 Hours.”

In recognition of the exceptionally high number of outstanding design entries, the jury chose to recognize the following 10 entries as worthy of Honorable Mentions in the 2017 Michelin Challenge Design (in alphabetical order):

• Samuel Marquez Arango of Torino, Italy, for “Bugatti Benoist”
• Martin Chatelier of Hauts-de-Seine, France, for “Mercedes Benz Design to Win”
• Jeroen Claus and Fabian Brees of Antwerp, Belgium, for “Tesla LMPE”
• Andhika Dimas Dwiputra and Freksa Arista Ihsan of Bekasi, Indonesia, for “Audi Ayrus”
• Po-Sen Huang and Po-Yuan Huang of New Taipei City, Taiwan, for “TOKON”
• Minwoo Jeon and Donghun Nam of Seoul, South Korea, for “ConverT”
• Nicolas Francisco Loyola of Torino, Italy, for “Faraday Future Singularity”
• Miguel Ferreira Rodrigues of Coimbra, Portugal, for “NEO”
• Chirayu Shinde of Maharashtra, India, for “Renault Sun Run”
• Emre M. Yazici of Ankara, Turkey, for “Appleone“

The first, second and third place winners will be invited to attend the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) as guests of Michelin and will be recognized during Michelin’s annual private Designer’s Reception, where they will participate in a private portfolio review with members of the jury.

The first-place winner will be recognized at the 2017 Le Mans 24 Hours race. All members of each winning team and finalist category are invited to join an exclusive online community restricted to Michelin Challenge Design winners and jurors.

Images of the winning entries are available at michelinchallengedesign.com.