Tyred and emotional: Michelin’s MotoGP tightrope

Tyres today remain round and black, but come with bewildering performance characteristics that leave even top riders flummoxed. And they carry a load of baggage which complicates everything, including race results, which can be completely overturned after the champagne has been sprayed, for the sake of a tenth of a pound-per-square-inch.

The round black things are a rider’s crucial contact with the road. A lot is expected of them. While Formula 1 cars have broad acres of contact patch, a MotoGP bike’s rear tyre is called upon to transmit some 203PS (149kW) through a single patch around the size of an outstretched hand.

Small wonder there are problems. Which have become notably severe with the ever- growing power of MotoGP four-strokes, and exponentially more severe still over the last five years, with the extra speed and hence extra stresses endowed by ride-height devices raising and lowering the centres of gravity and pressure, along with burgeoning aerodynamics. The earlier downforce wings are now supplemented by fairing flanks giving ground effect at full lean, as well as winglets everywhere from front axle to seat-back, via the rear swing-arm.

In fact, it’s not the rear tyre that is causing the biggest problems. Michelin, exclusive MotoGP tyre suppliers since 2016, have won riders’ praise for their latest 2024 rear’s endurance and grip, while race and lap records are reliably tumbling. But, as Marc Márquez explains, “now the rear is pushing the front.”

The role of control tyre supplier is a difficult balancing act. On one side you get bragging rights – you win every race. On the other, you field all the brick-bats. And there are always plenty. Especially now, because Michelin’s front, unlike the rear, is clearly inadequate. And they seem un able to do anything about it.

The problem seems simple. The tyre is very sensitive to heat, which causes pressure to rise – whereupon the profile gets taller, the contact patch narrower, and the grip less. Rising temperature is particularly problematic in the hot and dirty air close behind another bike – and with tech rules heavily biased to foster close racing, this happens a lot.

The temptation here is to under-inflate, and Michelin got scared; this might cause crashes and they would get the blame. This set in motion a process that over the past two seasons has become increasingly absurd: the rule that any rider under 8.5 bar for more than 40 per cent of the race (these figures have been tweaked around before arriving at this) suffers a 16-second penalty. Even this is a negotiated settlement: the original rule was disqualification for a repeat offender.

The frequency of this happening suggests it is a rule made to break, which no rider or team would do voluntarily. There have been several egregious examples of riders robbed of points. One of the most illustrative concerned was Marc Márquez at Assen, whose Ducati gave him an on-board warning that he was in trouble. He waved past a slower rider so as to tuck in behind and heat the tyre. “After you, Claude” is not racing as it should be, and in any case the tactic failed: the eight-time world champion was dropped from a hard-earned fourth place to tenth, losing seven points.

Unfortunately, pressure choice is down to guesswork. Will the rider be alone up front? Following others? Will he be able to baby his tyre, or be engaged in furious battle? Nobody can know this in advance. So, Michelin face opprobrium. Why can’t they just make a tyre that works? Isn’t that their job? Are they incapable, or just unwilling?

Well, that’s a little unfair. They did make a prototype tyre the riders liked, tested at Misano in September. But Michelin weren’t completely happy, and wanted to make some changes and test some more … so introduction was deferred from next year until 2026 meaning another year of guesswork and almost random penalties.

But Michelin are strapped by Dorna’s regulations, which strictly limit testing for full-time riders, with just five days pre-season, and three during the season. Weather permitting. Tests that are necessarily devoted to high-intensity machine development.

Not much room for seriously fast riders to seriously test tyres – they only got a handful of laps at Misano. And not nearly enough time for Michelin to get satisfactorily fast testing miles before signing off a new product.

Ah well, “round and black,” by which Hailwood wasn’t being facetious as much as revealing that the whole question of racing tyres is far too complex to be dealt with in a single sentence, or understood by laymen when even top riders are continuously searching for the key. At least nobody penalised him for being deliberately vague.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.