China buys Pirelli

China has bought F1’s official tyre supplier Pirelli.

State-owned China National Chemical, or Chem China, has secured control of the Milan-based company valued at over EUR 7 billion.

According to Forbes, the deal "will put 140 years of Italian tradition and research and development at the service of the huge Chinese market".

Pirelli chief executive Marco Tronchetti Provera, however, will keep his role.

"But the new paymaster," explained Forbes correspondent Marcel Michelson, will be a man who "reports to China’s State-owned Asset Supervision and Administration Commission, headed by Zhang Yi who sits on the central committee of the communist party".