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/1523994
VOLUME ISSUE JULY , P139 cross the finishing line is not the last word. Since before last year, Mo- toGP has been saddled with front tires that are not good enough. They can't cope with the extra loading resulting from downforce aero and shape-shift - ing suspension, both of which allow harder braking. They tend to overheat, especially when fol- lowing another bike. As a result, teams tend to underinflate them slightly. But this risks dangerous col - lapse. Or so says Michelin, and they should know because they make the inadequate tires—al- though nobody can actually point to a single incident when this has happened. What to do? Demand better tires? Michelin is the sole supplier and should surely be expected to keep up with technical development. Should we leave the teams and riders to make their own de - cisions and take responsibility for themselves? Taking risks is, after all, part of the job descrip- tion. Or introduce a minimum- pressure rule and then find a Draconian way to enforce it? MotoGP's current manage- ment chose the last, including the threat of disqualification for transgressors. Thankfully, after much pro- test, they saw some sense. Not a lot, but enough to ameliorate the punishment and marginally reduce the minimum pressure. Now, a rider below the pressure for a specified part of the race (30 percent for the Sprint, 60 on Sunday) merely suffers a time penalty (eight and 16 seconds, respectively). Enough to nul - lify all efforts and potentially ruin the results, sometime after they've been announced and celebrated. All this enforced by complex and specialized onboard and remote monitoring equipment, feeding tailor-made algorithms— a sort of electronic game that feels like they're doing it just because they can. For teams, it means taking a tire-pressure gamble on whether your rider will be leading, front wheel in a cooling breeze (pres - sure up), or following (pressure down). Get it wrong, and you either risk over-inflation and a loss of grip or punishment, los - ing hard-won race positions. As Assen came the unedify- ing spectacle of Marc Marquez deliberately slowing down and waving Di Giannantonio past so that he might follow him to heat up his front tire. His onboard system had warned him. Sadly, it was not enough. Later in the race, he was put off wide by Bastianini, lost his close follow - ing position, and the pressure went down again. Shortly after celebrating a hard-won fourth place, he was dropped to 10th. There was more of the same a week later in Germany. It is manifestly absurd. Laugh - able. It makes a supposedly serious World Championship sport look ridiculous. The other matter concerns Moto3 and the effort to prevent riders from cruising during quali- fying, waiting for a tow that (at some tracks) is worth a second or better. It's clearly dangerous, but increasingly strict attempts to stop it have quite obviously failed. At the Sachsenring, no less than half the 26-strong field was sanctioned, with punish - ments ranging from a warning via single or double long-lap penalties to pit-lane starts. Next stop, disqualification. What more evidence could there be that the system is not working? The riders—begin - ners and old hands alike—quite plainly don't care. And unless you are one of a small handful of actual title con - tenders, why would you? Rather, get a good lap time and hope you get away with it. The icing on the cake: the stupidly small Sachsenring (not actually fit for grand prix racing) had a long-lap loop feeding di- rectly back onto the racing line. There was at least one very, very close call. Making the punishment more dangerous than the crime. Time for a rethink. Maybe fi- nancial penalties. Maybe instant disqualification, no pussyfoot- ing around. Maybe punish the teams, not the riders. And stop making Grand Prix racing look ridiculous. CN