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/1542356
IN THE PADDOCK
The Real TireWar
t is interesting
to compare the tire
wars of MotoGP with the enforced
tire
peace
of
World
Superbikes.
The former
have a battle of
increasinS viSor between l''lichelin
and Bridgestone, with Dunlop
also
pitch-
ing in
big time to try and regain
lost
ground.
ln World Superbike,
everyone uses
Pirellis. That's
all there is.
ln
both
Wodd
Championships, the rac-
ing over the
past year
or so,
has been
excellent.
ln both cases,
this is largely
because
of the tire situation. This is rather
odd, considering that the
conditions are
diametrically opposed
-
the free
competi-
tion of rampant
capitillism vs. the totalcon-
trol of a benevo-
lent dictator.
This result
has
more to do with
history
than coin-
cidence,
and it
surely
proves
that, in
motorcy-
cle racing
as in
life, there is more
than
one way to
skin a cat.
Grand Prix rac-
in8, in
the biggest
class, has
been a
Michelin
play-
ground
for some
l5
years
... the last
soocc-class World
Champion on
Dunlops was
Wayne Rainey
in
l99l . Almost the
opposite is
true,
by the way, in the
250cc class, and
the issue
was
never as clear-cut in World
Superbike or
the National Championships,
though
Dunlop has
dominated in AMA
Superbikes
for seemingly forever
Then Bridgestone showed up in
GP
racing 2002.
The
Japanese
company, already strong
in car racing, w.ls some ways behind
the
Same
in the
500cc class, but
progressed
patiently
and
caught up steadily, as is the
national habit, winning their first
GP with
Makoto Tamada in
Rio in 2004
-
after
Valentino
Rossi
and Sete Gibernau had
both obligingly fallen off.
The next year,
Bridgestone moved
away from
satellite teams
(it
had started
in 2002 with Proton and Honda)
to full-
factory
teams
-
Ducati, Kawasaki,
and
Suzuki. The latter have spent the time
since in their
own spiral of confusion, cul-
minating most recently
in an impressive
total of 13 engine failures, most
of them
serious, at
Qatar.
Kawasaki has moved
into the middle
ground,
much better than
before, but still lagging.
Ducati
has been heroic, and theirgamble
to dump Michelin for Bridgestone has
paid
big dividends for
both. Loris
Capirossi beat
Rossi twice last year,
and won the openirE
round of this
year,
to lead on
points
as they
go
to the
third race.
Of
course, it
is early
yet,
but not
too early to say that the balance
of
power
has shifted siSnificantly.
Michelin,
for its
part,
is
showing some
signs
of being on the back foot. They've
developed a new tire this year,
but it
seems to have brought new
problems
-
cal factor in mce results
(some
might
say
always) - at least
among teammates on the
same type of motorcycle.
The
greatest
riders
are those with the best understand-
ing of all aspecs
of tire
performance,
especially when worn
-
Rainey (again)
and
Rossi spring
to mind immediately.
Will Dunlop make it a three-way
battle
by the
end of this
year?
That might
be a
tall
order Let's say it must surely be tech-
nically
possible,
but it is
still
hampered
by
a
relarively
small number
of
riders
using
its
tires
-
just
four. This crucially limits the
amount of data
and
feedback
for
their
development engineers.
But Dunlop cer-
tainly upped its
game
this
year,
increasing
the budget
by an undisclosed amount
to
was able to choose its own levelof inyest-
ment
and
pace
of development.
Bridgestone upped the ante last
year
by
commissioning test teams, and both it
and
Michelin
bring at
least
1000 tires to each
race. Costs are already rocketing, and
are
goin8
to keep
on
rising
until somebody
applies some
control
-
a matter that the
three tire companies are workinE
toward
Or
until
Dorna copy the Flammini
Group, and impose its own
control.
The
World
Superbike
opentors were
wid+ criticized when they did announce
their Pirelli spec-tire rules. lt
was seen as a
cynical
piece
of
asset stripping. The
Flamminis took a wedge of cash from Pirelli,
while compethors
all
had
to
pay for
their tires too.
whereas before
the top teams had
been supplied free
by I'4ichelin
and
Dunlop.
tap times
did
suffei
but
in
the
grand
scheme of
things,
rhat tumed
out not
to
mean
that much after
all. Close racing is
more
important
to the fans than
mere numbers,
and the lirst cou-
ple
of
years
of rac-
ing on one-make
tires proved
the
truism
-
it does
tend to lead
to
closer competi-
tion. The simulta-
neous dumbing
down of technical
rules and the consequent
loss of the
Japanese
factory
teams helped in
the same way. The Flammini
Group ended
up having the last laugh.
At
the same time, Pirelli
has the luxury
once
enioyed by Michelin in l''lorocB
at a