The tiny gadget that will transform MotoGP in 2023

MotoGP

MotoGP’s minimum tyre pressure rules will be enforced for the first time in 2023, which will have a huge effect on the racing. For a start, top engineers believe there will be less overtaking and more crashes

Yamaha-MotoGP-rider-Fabio-Quartararo-at-the-2022-Japanese-GP-at-Motegi

TPMS (tyre pressure monitoring systems) units will be fitted to all MotoGP rims for 2023, so no one will be able to get away with using low tyre pressures to gain performance

Yamaha/LDL

Mat Oxley

Next year MotoGP’s minimum tyre pressure regulations will be enforced for the first time, which will have a significant impact on the racing, according to several top engineers.

MotoGP especially needs to police front tyre pressures because they have a huge effect on lap times. The simple reason most teams run their front tyres slightly below the minimum (aware their riders will incur no penalty, because penalties have been deferred to 2023) is because it makes their riders faster.

One engineer I spoke to promised me that his team always respects the minimum limit and its results have been mostly rubbish this season, so go figure…

The three engineers from different manufacturers with whom I’ve discussed this subject – who share more than 60 years in the paddock between them – say that enforcing the 1.9 bar front-tyre minimum will result in more crashes, less overtaking and big changes to who’s fast and who’s not. In other words, it could completely change MotoGP.

A-McLaren-tyre-pressure-monitoring-system-on-a-MotoGP-wheel-rim

A McLaren TPMS fitted to a current MotoGP wheel rim

Oxley

MotoGP’s minimum pressures are 1.9 bar (27.55psi) for front slicks and 1.7 bar (24.65psi) for rears. At the moment teams can use any brand of TPMS (tyre pressure monitoring systems) they like, so it’s impossible to accurately compare data from these different sensors, which is why the rules aren’t really rules.

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But from the end of this season all teams will have all their wheel rims equipped with TPMS made by LDL Technology, who already supply MotoE. They won the contract against McLaren and 2D, who currently equip most of the MotoGP grid. These sensors will use an encrypted data line, which (in theory) can’t be tampered with, so Dorna and IRTA will know what pressure everyone is running. Any rider found below the limit will be sanctioned.

Why is all this talk about hot air such a big deal? Because running a bit blow the 1.9 bar limit gives the front slick a better footprint, which means more grip braking into corners and riding through corners. At over 1.9 bar the tyre changes its profile and becomes stiffer, therefore reducing the footprint for braking and cornering. This will have two effects: the rider will be slower and/or crash.

“Two hundred percent it’s going to have an effect on the racing – it’s a nightmare,” one factory engineer told me. “There are two issues: first, the rider being able to ride the motorcycle; second, safety.

“We work in a very narrow window with front pressure. If it goes up 0.1 bar the rider can handle it. but if it goes to 1.5 or 2 bar, this is when it gets really scary. The tyre balloons and the bike becomes unrideable. The grip is gone, so the front is locking on the brakes, it’s tucking into corners and it’s understeering. That’s all the things you don’t want, adding up and adding up.

Ducati-MotoGP-rider-Pecco-Bagnaia-at-the-2022-Japanese-GP-at-Motegi

Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia gets his speed from using the front tyre to its very limit, so how will the rules change affect him?

Ducati

“Trying now not to go too high on pressure you start the race so low that when you go to the grid the front tyre feels almost flat, but once the race starts you get up to pressure pretty quickly. We understand there has to be a rule, but the way these bikes work and the way the front tyre can handle the heat creates a situation.

“Of course, temperature and pressure affect some bikes and some riders more than others. Some riders can handle more pressure in the tyre much better than others, just through their style, how they turn, how they use the front. But in general, the more the riders use the front tyre the bigger the problem they will have. And the riders who flick the bike super-fast will suffer like hell.

“I mean, look at Yamaha. A couple of years ago they were going from winning races to finishing 15th, just because the front pressure went up when they were in the group, so we are talking that much impact. Also [Pecco] Bagnaia’s way of riding, the speed he carries into corners, could be a problem.”

Another factory engineer told me that half the riders at Mugello were below the minimum pressure limit!

“So much depends on the kind of race you’re having,” he said. “We’ve had races where one of our guys has been out front, running 1.7 and going well. Then another of our guys is stuck in a group and his pressure goes up 0.2 or 0.3 bar to 2.1 and he crashes, probably because of that, so there’s a massive difference in performance. Al the riders have tyre pressure monitors on their dash panels, so they know if they are under target, over target or on target and they will revise their tactics accordingly.

Honda-MotoGP-rider-Marc-Marquez-at-the-2022-Japanese-GP-at-Motegi

Marc Marquez won his six MotoGP titles through his unique front-tyre control, but things could get trickier than ever in 2023

Honda

“But if we have to keep to 1.9 I see qualifying being more important, I see more crashes and I think there will be less overtaking because it won’t be as easy to get by. Once your pressure increases and you’ve got a lot of font-tyre lock, you haven’t got any more to give and you have to drop back to cool your front tyre.”

From 2023 the tyre pressure rules won’t only apply in races; they will also apply in qualifying, so riders who can currently magic super-fast QP laps may struggle to repeat those feats.

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Of course, all these issues of excessive front-tyre pressures have become an increasing problem in recent seasons due technological advances, mostly improved downforce aerodynamics, shapeshifters (ride-height devices), ever-increasing horsepower and bigger disc brakes, which all increase load on the front tyre, raising temperature and pressure.

“We’ve seen a significant increase with all these things, so now there’ll be a mad rush to figure it out,” said another engineer. “It’s not that we haven’t already been working on this, because it’s already super-complicated without any penalties. We are talking massive temperatures in the front tyre now – at Red Bull Ring [where riders hammer the front tyre on the brakes more than anywhere else] our font tyres were running hotter than the rears!”

Of course, all the factories will spend the coming off-season trying to further figure out this issue, trying to get their bikes to work better with 1.9 bar in the front tyre, which may require rebalanced chassis and revised riding techniques and race strategies.

Maybe MotoGP’s brains will find a way around the problem. Otherwise the obvious question is which bikes and riders will suffer the most? The one-day post-Valencia won’t tell us much – because the weather will most likely be too cold – but the first 2023 pre-season tests may show us the shape of things to come.

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