In a sport where speed, engine power, bike construction and rider skill should make the difference, such a basic element as tires should not create any kind of imbalance. However, in recent times, the sole supplier of the MotoGP World Championship, in this case Michelin , has entered the competition.
In 2016, the French manufacturer became the only compound brand for the premier class, replacing Bridgestone , which had been between 2009 and 2015. Thus, since 2008, the last year in which each team could freely choose its supplier , MotoGP has apparently enjoyed the same material for all its riders, a measure in order to match the competition and reduce costs.
During these last six years without competition, Michelin has been able to work with the peace of mind that its product could not be compared to any other, unlike what happened in 2007, when Ducati surprisingly won the championship wearing Bridgestone, or 2008, when some riders, such as Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa , rejected the French tires to embrace the Japanese ones.
This lack of competition has allowed the French manufacturer to reduce costs enormously, without influencing the competitiveness of the product, improving, year after year, the records in most circuits, as the manufacturer likes to remember, with all the Right, usually.
But Michelin has not escaped, during these years, from the controversy. In 2016, its first year as sole supplier, it presented a range of tires at the beginning of the season that, due to pressure from some teams, was changed after a few races. The final decision was made by the drivers in a tense meeting that changed the course of the championship from that moment on. The trigger was the race in Argentina, which despite being held in the dry, had to be declared flag to flag after Scott Redding had a tire explode in FP4, just as Loris Baz had done in the Sepang tests in February. of that year, without the manufacturer assuming responsibility for what happened.
Since then, the manufacturer has opted for compounds that offer safety to the drivers, but with the constant progress and development by the manufacturers, in 2021 the formula was already outdated. Michelin’s response was instantaneous, demonstrating once again its productive muscle and its great capacity for development.
In 2022, the Clermont-Ferrand house presented the MotoGP teams with a new catalog of its compounds, tested for the first time in the Misano tests, in the summer of 2021, and in the Jerez pre-season tests, in November last. year.
Based on these compounds, the constructors developed their 2022 prototypes, completely adapted to their characteristics. Some tires to which, apparently in preseason and in the first Grand Prix, held in Qatar, some bikes were better adapted than others.
Michelin changed the catalog, reduced from 45 different compounds to 30 and although it kept the so-called overheated tires (units heated but not used and, therefore, reassigned), it ensured that those tires already warmed up would be returned to the same driver, they would not go to stop at another garage, which many racers had complained about in the past.
Everything seemed to flow wonderfully, Michelin had made a great product and it seemed that the tyres, which had given so many problems to many riders last year, were not going to influence the competition this year.
However, the Mandalika test arrived and there the French manufacturer realized that the new and brand new Michelin were not going to last the 27 scheduled laps, and they opted for an incomprehensible maneuver: take tires with a larger casing to the Indonesian GP. hard, used in 2017 in Austria.
The story is already known, the change in the architecture of the wheels completely changed the operation of the motorcycles, which harmed some and was better for others. But the question is: How and why was the sole supplier able to change the tires unilaterally? Very simple, because Michelin has an ace up its sleeve.
According to what Motorsport.com has learned, the French manufacturer plans at the beginning of the season which tires it will take to each and every one of the grand prix that are held. Before starting the course, all the teams know the allocation for each race, a list that is supposedly confidential and neither the manufacturer nor the teams have wanted to provide it, despite the insistence of the writer of these lines.
However, and this is the key, Michelin reserves the right to confirm the final allocation for each race until the Tuesday before it, so the teams “have a general, but not definitive, idea of the tires we will have in each grand prix”, explains a coach from the premier category.
Thus, the French house acted within its own rules and warned of the change of tires for the Indonesian race within the deadline, but it did skip them by not carrying a tire construction included in this year’s catalog. And these are what Honda complains about.
