MotoGP | Taramasso: “Mandalika has a stiffer rear frame”

With the double round at Misano now behind us, MotoGP begins its long journey to Asia with the third edition of the Indonesian Grand Prix, with the Mandalika track that in the past has always proved particularly treacherous for tyres. While waiting to conclude all the analyses on the controversial rear tyre used by Pecco Bagnaia last Sunday, Michelin manager Piero Taramasso explained to us what to expect from the round that will take place on the island of Lombok.

“Mandalika is a really demanding track, both in terms of layout and asphalt. Also, you always have to deal with very high temperatures, close to 60 degrees for the asphalt, so it’s a track that puts a lot of stress on both the front and rear tyres,” Taramasso told Motorsport.com.

With high temperatures like those expected in Indonesia, a different carcass is needed at the rear, designed specifically to prevent the tyre from overheating: “We have a more rigid construction. It’s not exactly the one we use in Austria, but let’s say it follows the same philosophy, because it’s more robust to try to keep temperatures lower. The two solutions we bring, the soft and the medium, are asymmetrical given the majority of right-hand corners, and in terms of compounds they have the same centering as last year’s, but they are made with the new 2024 technology”.

At the front, the range is practically the same as last year, although the French company hopes to be able to experiment with a new medium compound that has never found the right environmental conditions this season: “We have confirmed the same options for the soft and hard. We have decided to change the medium with the specification that we tried during the winter tests in Sepang. It is a tyre that we have also tried to bring to other circuits such as Jerez and Aragon, but for the moment we have never managed to use it in the race. At Mandalika, however, there should be the right conditions to exploit it”.

In any case, the precedents are encouraging, given that last year all the front solutions proved to be particularly competitive: “As for the hard, this has a slightly different construction and last year Pecco Bagnaia used it, who won the race. But the soft also reached the podium with Fabio Quartararo, third with Yamaha. However, last year on this track there was our entire front range in the top three positions, because Maverick Vinales, who finished second, had the medium that we decided to replace for this year”, concluded Taramasso.