Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1476305
VOLUME 59 ISSUE 33 AUGUST 16, 2022 P133 (it was very hot), the R1 is in all kinds of trouble. The explanation is simple enough. The tires overheat. And it's more subtle than not only a factor of overheating rubber. The pressure goes up, the profile changes, and the edge-grip disappears. The Yamahas are already well down on top speed—Quartararo was third-slowest through the speed trap at 205.8 mph, the top Ducati (Bastianini's) clocked 211.6 mph. Its riders have to compensate with the sweet-han- dling bike's sweeping lines and high corner speed. But when the grip goes, that goes with it. Quartararo is already the only Yamaha rider able to qualify well enough to avoid getting mired in traffic, to have a chance to be competitive. In Britain, the next- best Yamaha was Morbidelli's in a distant 15th. Dovizioso and Darryn Binder didn't even make the points. Dovizioso, in fact, is so disillusioned with the unequal struggle that he decided dur- ing the break to resign after his home race at Misano, missing the last six rounds altogether. Even the defending cham- pion, however, once he has four bikes in front of him, cannot avoid the trap. "Overtaking is almost impossible," he moaned after dropping back from second on lap one to a dispirited eighth at the end. At Silverstone, he had found a new way to fall into the trap. Instead of the front tire overheat- ing, spoiling braking and turn-in, it was the rear. Obviously, everybody's tires suffer in the same way, hence the controversy over tire pres- sures, already "governed" by a rule that is apparently too difficult actually to be enforced. But not everybody's race performance suffers in the same way. Notably not the pace of the Ducatis and now also the Aprilias. It's easy to draw the conclu- sion that this is because they are V4s, naturally more powerful and in some respects more agile (or less stable) than in-line fours, largely because of their shorter, stiffer crankshafts and narrower engine width. Where a more stable in-line four can manage fast corner speeds, a V4 attacks them dif- ferently, braking harder, slower mid-corner then blasting out faster, having got in the in-line four's way mid-corner. Crucially this means loss of tire edge grip makes less differ- ence to a V4. Yet, as always with motor- cycles, things tend to be a little more complicated and a bit less readily explained, because the Suzuki, whose engine is al- most identical to the Yamaha's, doesn't suffer in the same way. Just to prove the point and muddy the waters, Alex Rins was able not only to move from fifth on the first lap into the lead on the sixth at Silverstone, but to stay there for six laps. Although to be fair the effort took so much out of his tires that he eventually faded to seventh. Still one place ahead of Quartararo. The end result of all this was most encouraging for the championship. Bagnaia's win to Quartararo's eighth cut the points deficit from 74 to 49 with eight races to go, four of which Bagnaia won last year. At the same time, the closest title chal- lenger Aleix Espargaro, far from fit after a horrible slam-dunk highside the day before, lost just one point to the leader, finishing a close ninth after his last-lap overtaking attack was repulsed. Whatever next? Austria's sim- plistic Red Bull Ring, and then another seven more tracks. Yes, racing is definitely better than being on holiday. CN That, in turn, put him in the Yamaha's bad place—behind other bikes. When that happens, especially in hot weather (it was very hot), the R1 is in all kinds of trouble.