Beginning of the end of MotoGP’s tyre-pressure nightmare, plus Hollywood tech arrives in pitlane

MotoGP

During Monday’s Misano tests all 22 MotoGP riders evaluated Michelin’s promising new front slick, designed to solve tyre-pressure problems, while Aprilia used Hollywood motion-capture technology to record how their riders move around their motorcycles

Michelin MotoGP technicians test tyre temperatures of Pecco Bagnaia Ducati

Michelin technicians check their new front slick after Bagnaia’s first run with the tyre at Misano on Monday

Michelin

Author

Mat Oxley

The entire MotoGP grid tested Michelin’s all-new front slick for the first time at Misano on Monday. This was a compulsory 30-minute test, because when Michelin previously tried to get all 22 riders to test the tyre — which it hopes will be ready for 2025 — most didn’t, because riders tend to worry more about next weekend than next year. No wonder development takes so long.

One of the main goals of the tyre is to reduce sensitivity to temperature. Michelin’s current MotoGP front slick can overheat in some situations, which increases pressure, shrinking the contact patch and reducing grip.

This over-pressure issue forced teams to run lower and lower pressures in search of more grip, until Michelin became concerned that the tyre carcass would be damaged and the tyre collapse. Hence the minimum-pressure rule, which has forced riders, engineers, teams and the championship into a very uncomfortable corner.

The tyre-pressure situation has already affected this year’s title fight on several occasions: Marc Márquez was demoted from fourth to tenth at Assen for running fractionally under pressure, while Pecco Bagnaia’s attempts to attack Jorge Martin during Sunday’s Misano sprint were thwarted by his front tyre going over pressure while he was in Martin’s super-hot draft. It’s a fine line between the two.

The new slick is completely new, made with the same top-secret 3CM production process (a bit like 3D-printing, for want of a better term) used to manufacturer rear slicks in recent years. This process was first used to make Michelin’s so-called overnight tyres – during the days of open competition between tyre brands – which were made using data from Friday practice, then rushed to the track for Sunday.

New Michelin front MotoGP tyre with red mould marks

Multiple radial mould marks (highlighted in red) indicate the moulding stage of the new front tyre’s C3M manufacturing process

Oxley

The tyre has a stiffer construction and different profile. The profile is noticeably different – fatter and more rounded. The positive of the tyre is a bigger footprint during braking, to cope better with heavy loads. The negative is reduced agility. But since the goal is to make the tyre more resilient under stress, this seems a price worth paying.

The tyre’s biggest fan is reigning champion Pecco Bagnaia, who makes his speed with scary-late braking and braking towards the apex.

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“I love the tyre,” he said. “Because it’s something I really need, because I use a lot of brake entering corners, which feels super-good with this tyre. It does make the bike heavier to change direction. But I like the grip a lot and the way you can push on the tyre. Also, I think that when we are behind someone we may feel the tyre-pressure problem less.

“When I tried the tyre I was braking like a devil. My problem with the current tyre is that I can’t brake like I want, on angle, because the tyre collapses.

“I chose two slow corners [Turns 2 and 4] where I could take risks and crash and not have any issues. At those corners I forced the bike a lot to have movement from the tyre, or locking, or losing the front, but I didn’t have any of that. It’s incredible.

“I’ve spoken many times with Valentino Rossi about the Bridgestone front [MotoGP’s spec tyre from 2009 to 2015 and the reference in front-tyre performance] and this feeling seems to be the same they had with the Bridgestone.”

Michelin tyre engineers in Ducati pit garage

There were more Michelin engineers in team garages than ever before during Monday’s front-tyre test

Oxley

Sunday’s Misano winner Marc Márquez was more concerned about the tyre’s reduced agility.

“It’s a big change,” he said. “It was super-strange during the first laps, then with more laps I built confidence. The stability is super-good and the braking stability is better. But they need to work on agility, especially in changes of direction, because again the bikes become heavier [to turn], because with the aero they’ve become heavier and heavier and heavier.”

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MotoGP’s next tech revolution? Sensors on riders!
MotoGP

MotoGP’s next tech revolution? Sensors on riders!

The rider accounts for around a third of the combined mass of a MotoGP bike. Engineers have tons of bike data but they need to know where the rider is sat and what he’s doing

By Mat Oxley

Of course, it’s important to understand that the tyre-pressure situation isn’t only of Michelin’s making. The concept of spec-tyre racing is that the motorcycle manufacturers design their machines to generate the maximum grip from the tyres, rather than tyre companies tailor-making tyres to suit each motorcycle.

Formula 1-inspired downforce aerodynamics have entirely changed the game in MotoGP, dramatically increasing load on the front tyre, especially during braking, causing extra stress and heat.

Meanwhile engine output has increased nearly 50% since the big four-strokes arrived in 2002, massively increasing the heat created by motorcycles, which can be transferred to other bikes when riders are racing in a group. The heat isn’t only a problem for the front tyre, it’s getting to the point where riders are struggling to survive some races.

During Monday’s test, Aprilia went public for the first time with its rider-sensor data system, which has been under development for some while. Trackhouse riders Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez tried the system, their leathers hiding dozens of sensors which send data to a little black box mounted on the seat hump, telling their engineers exactly how they move around the bike to make it do what they want it to do.

This technology is already well known in the movie and video-game industries – actors wear bodysuits fitted with sensors that capture their movements, which special software translates into animations.

MotoGP datalogging box on Aprilia bike

This datalogging box – fitted to the seat of an Aprilia RS-GP records rider movements via multiple sensors fitted within the rider’s leathers

Oxley

“We are planning to do this kind of thing, because the most difficult point in making computer simulations is to simulate the rider as a control system that guides the bike – that’s very difficult,” Aprilia’s MotoGP tech chief Romano Albesiano told me at the end of last year. “On the data we have now we can see where the loads are, but we don’t know where the rider is and what kind of pressure he is putting into the bike. Absolutely this is an important point of investigation.”

Albesiano isn’t wrong – this is hugely valuable information and the only real surprise is that it’s taken so long.

Rider radios were also tested at Misano and look likely to be introduced next season. The primary push behind this technology is safety, so Race Direction can inform riders of potentially dangerous situations. However, teams will most likely also be allowed to communicate with their riders, because Dorna believes this will improve the TV show.

Team-to-driver comms are popular in Formula 1, because they can add an extra dynamic to sometimes underwhelming races.

Obviously, it’s nothing less than fascinating to hear an engineer tell his driver, “Your tyres are ready – push, push, push!”, although no one has yet bettered the words of Kimi Räikkönen when he was on his way to winning the 2012 Abu Dhabi GP, “Just leave me alone, I know what to do”.

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