After a first season in which the teams had some leeway to adapt to the new limitations, the regulations for this year provided for immediate disqualification for any driver who exceeded the minimum pressure limit, set at 1.88 bar per the front tire and 1.68 bar for the rear.
According to Motorsport.com, however, this season this drastic measure has been replaced by time penalties, which will be added at the end of the races. If the infringement occurs during the Sprint on Saturday, an extra eight seconds will be applied, while if the infringement occurs on Sunday, the penalty will be 16 seconds – double.
Last season, Michelin, the championship's sole tire supplier, deemed it appropriate to introduce a limit to the minimum pressure of motorbikes for safety reasons. The initial timetable was that the first Grand Prix would be used to monitor pressures, but that violators would not be penalized until Jerez. In the end the sanctions were only applied after the summer break, by Silverstone, and the first sanction arrived in Barcelona at the beginning of September, with Maverick Vinales as the protagonist.
A graduated system was established, ranging from a warning for the first offense up to a 12 second penalty for the fourth. Drivers had to stay above the threshold for at least 50% of the laps for the long race and 30% for the Sprint.
A few weeks ago, Michelin accepted the requests of the riders, who asked to slightly lower the minimum pressure of the front tire. The French supplier agreed to move from 1.88 bar to 1.80 bar, but in exchange asked for an increase in the residence time above this value. While last year it was necessary to cover 50% of the laps in this window in the case of long races, this percentage now rises to 60%, while in Sprints it will remain at 30% of the total laps.
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