Michelin to start testing new MotoGP front slick next month

The French company’s inhouse test riders are already evaluating the new slick and, if they give the go-ahead, the tyre will be tried by MotoGP factory test riders – Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori, Ducati’s Michele Pirro, Honda’s Stefan Bradl and so on – during October, while the MotoGP paddock is busy racing in the Far East.

If the test riders give the thumbs up, the MotoGP grid will get the chance to try the tyre in the one-day post-season tests at Valencia on November 8.

The concept of the new tyre is to make it less susceptible to increases in temperature and pressure, which is the problem with the current tyre: when a rider catches a rival and gets close to the machine in front then his front tyre overheats and loses grip, so he can’t attack. This is why MotoGP races are often more of procession than a battle. The tyre will also run at lower pressure than the current 1.9 bar minimum, for better performance.

“The goal is 1.7 bar and to make the tyre less sensitive to temperature and pressure changes,” said Michelin motor sport manager Piero Taramasso at Red Bull Ring. “The tyre will be very different, with a new profile and it will be made with different materials.”

Although Michelin has been criticised for its current front slick’s performance in recent years, as the extra loads imposed by the latest technology have overwhelmed the tyre, Taramasso sees the issue from a different point of view.

“When you have a control-tyre championship, then the manufacturers have to design their motorcycles around the tyres,” added Taramasso. “But by adding all the aero and the devices, then they aren’t designing their motorcycles around the tyres.”

This is a fair point. Many riders and manufacturers complain that the Michelin front isn’t up to the machinery, but perhaps that’s because the manufacturers have worked against the tyres, not with the tyres.

Michelin doesn’t know when the new front will be ready to race, but it certainly won’t be next year, because front tyres take a lot longer to get right than rear tyres, because they’re so much more critical in every way.

In the meantime Michelin may reduce the minimum pressure of the current tyre for 2023. Next year all machines will be equipped with spec tyre pressure/temperature sensors, so the minimum pressure regulations will be strictly enforced for the first time and a slightly lower minimum will help bikes perform better. Already most riders and teams run slightly below the 1.9 bar limit, because the minimum-pressure rule isn’t enforced and because they can find more grip that way.

“I’d like to say that next year you can go to 1.8 or 1.7 bar with the tyre we use at the moment,” revealed Taramasso. “But we cannot go lower than this. When we started using this tyre five years ago the minimum pressure was 2.1 bar, then we went to 2.0 and then to 1.9…”

MotoGP needs a new front slick – maybe more than it needs sprint races – so the development of this tyre is hugely important for the championship.

A new slick will also change the dynamics of the racing, shifting machine balance back towards the front of the motorcycle and therefore demanding something of a redesign from all the manufacturers. And hopefully it will improve the racing too, while also helping machines and riders that use the front tyre more.