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/1534591
VOLUME 62 ISSUE 16 APRIL 22, 2025 P139 past the Ducatis on the straight. 3 – that control-tire supplier Michelin's inability (or unwilling- ness) to build a front tire capa- ble of sustaining the demands of a modern aero-equipped MotoGP bike is a blot on their reputation. 4 – that the acceptance of Michelin's insistence on a puni - tive tire-pressure rule by Dorna, IRTA, the GP Commission and the GPMA (manufacturers' as - sociation) is an act of craven cowardice. 5 – that the departure of Michelin and the takeover next year by Pirelli is not only timely, but a chance for a vital reset of sporting parameters. To be fair, another of Dorna's dumbed-down rules plays a part—restricting MotoGP riders' testing to a handful of days, plus less than three hours of practice and qualifying on race weekends. This time is devoted to improving lap and race times rather than blue-sky research. Michelin is therefore ham - pered in developing new tires with top riders, whose input is crucially important. But this is only an excuse, not a real rea- son, for a tire company with the scientific and financial resourc- es available to Michelin. After all, Bridgestone managed to make race- and championship- winning tires by remote control, researching track data, and then sending it home to the engi - neers in Japan. Amazingly, Michelin did bring a redesigned front for testing last year, and riders liked it. However, the planned intro- duction this year was abruptly canceled. More testing was apparently required. The rule came into being because Michelin's front tire, unlike the highly regarded rear, unchanged in construction for more than a decade, is increas - ingly overstressed by burgeon- ing aero and ride-height devel- opments, which have shortened braking distances and elevated corner speed. Stress causes heat and pres - sure to build up, which in turn changes the profile, shrinks the contact patch, and dwindles grip. Overheating is worse when following another bike, so teams start races below the minimum pressure to account for this. But the leader then risks failing to build up enough pressure. Vina - les's mistake was leading for six laps in Qatar—he was punished for racing too hard. Michelin was concerned rid- ers would crash if they ran their front tires at too low a pres- sure, as if the world's top racers couldn't be trusted to make their own decisions. The rule-making GP Commission concurred. The regulations were framed during 2022, but, for mainly technical reasons, were not enforced until midway through 2023. For 2024, a crumb of comfort, the threat of disqualifi - cation for repeat offenders was withdrawn. However, minimum pressure was slightly reduced, to 1.80 bar from 1.88, and the distance allowed below this was cut from 50 to 40 percent of race distance. Last season, there were 17 punishments: a 16-second penalty (eight seconds in the Sprint); while at Assen came the unedifying sight of Marquez waving another rider past to warm his tire. That happened again in Thailand this year. This is not real racing. It is time this embarrassing rule was thrown on the scrap heap. But here's an interesting conspiracy theory: that in fact Vinales and his Tech 3 team de - liberately ran at an illegally low pressure, in the full knowledge that he would be penalized. This at least explains his equanimity when the axe fell. He'd proven his own and KTM's speed and crossed the line in second place. This mattered more than the official result. So, how about taking it a step further? If every rider were to run below minimum pressure, they would all have to be equally penalized. The race results would be 16 seconds slower, but would at least reflect the order in which they crossed the finish line. As they should. If Dorna's governing cohorts can't sort this out, a rider rebel - lion might get this silly, demean- ing rule canned once and for all. We could call it a Pressure Group. CN