IN
THE
WIND
P20
BAZ LUCKY
TO ESCAPE
185 MPH
CRASH
M
ichelin's first outing in
its first year back at last
week's Sepang MotoGP test
struck a sour note when satel-
lite Ducati rider Loris Baz was
pitched off at close to 185 mph
by a catastrophic tire failure,
right in front of the pits.
The French Avintia rider, in his
second season, and first on a
Ducati, was lucky to walk away
from the high-speed straight-
line crash, which had echoes of
Japanese rider Shinya Nakano's
195 mph Mugello crash in 2004
when his rear Bridgestone disin-
tegrated.
Examination of the debris
quickly exonerated engine,
transmission and suspension as
possible causes of the tire fail-
ure. So what had gone wrong?
Testing was suspended
then terminated for the rest
of the day, and the probable
cause was accepted as under-
inflation—a common practice in
search of better grip. But was it
the Avintia's mechanics or the
in-pit Michelin technician who
had let the pressure go down
too far?
As the finger of blame pointed
to and fro, Michelin withdrew the
tire concerned—the softer of two
compounds—for the third and
final test day, and imposed a
1.7-bar (24.7 psi) minimum pres-
sure. This is on the high side of
normal. As a result, the FIM has
now introduced mandatory tire
pressure sensors for the
MotoGP category. The sen-
sors are already mandatory for
Moto2 following a number of tire
failures last season.
Before the tests, riders had
been more concerned about
the front tire—the cause of many
crashes in tests at the end of
last season—but a redesigned
stiffer carcass, with five different
compounds to test, was a major
improvement.
Michael Scott
Baz's Ducati Desmosedici was almost unrecognizable after the massive crash.
(Left) The Frenchman
seconds after the im-
pact—he was very lucky
to walk away.
(Far left) The culprit
Michelin. Tire pressure
monitoring has been
quickly mandated fol-
lowing the crash.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
GOLD
&
GOOSE
