MotoGP | Taramasso: “Bastianini’s secret? He doesn’t attack the new tire”

After the beautiful double by Enea Bastianini at Silverstone, MotoGP is getting ready to face its second stage of the month of August. This weekend, in fact, a summer classic will take place, the Austrian Grand Prix. The setting will be the Red Bull Ring, a circuit that at first glance may seem downright banal, given that it only has 11 corners.

This feeling, however, could not be further from reality, because it is a track that is particularly stressful for mechanics and braking systems, but not only that. It is no coincidence that on the ups and downs of Spielberg, Michelin brings dedicated rear tires, as explained to us by manager Piero Taramasso, also telling us what are the pitfalls that teams and drivers will have to deal with this weekend.

“The Red Bull Ring has a very particular layout, with many straights, so big accelerations and very hard braking. These are characteristics that put both the front and rear tyres under quite a lot of stress, even if it is the latter that suffers the most, because it is subjected to a lot of load due to the accelerations. This causes the temperature to rise quite a lot in the central part of the tread and this is why we use a specific construction for Austria,” Taramasso told Motorsport.com.

“We have been using it for several seasons now and it works to keep temperatures a little more under control: compared to the standard carcass, this one is able to generate about 10 degrees less. Obviously, keeping the temperature under control also allows for better performance. However, it is a demanding track, because we know that when the asphalt temperature reaches 38-40 degrees, front lock can also be generated. Therefore, it is a track that must be taken with a pinch of salt, but we have known it for many years now and we know that our solutions are well-focused”, he added.

What kind of choices did you make regarding the compounds?
“The new thing is that this year the three front compounds are all one step harder. We basically eliminated the 2023 soft and confirmed the medium and hard, adding a third compound that is a little stiffer, because we know that the bikes are increasingly demanding on the front due to the aerodynamic load. Furthermore, in making this choice we took into account that in the month of August it could be quite hot, in addition to the fact that Brembo uses larger discs on this track, which in turn generate higher temperatures. These are three symmetrical solutions, while the two rear ones are asymmetrical, with a stiffer right shoulder, and with a compound centering in line with that of last year”.

In the past we also had to deal with rain, which is always rather annoying on a hill like the Austrian one…
“The forecast is for some thunderstorms both on Saturday and Sunday and in the wet it can be a bit of a ‘malicious’ track, because with so many climbs and descents real rivulets form that cross the track. In any case, if rain arrives we will propose the standard allocation of rain tyres, which have always performed well when called upon in the past at the Red Bull Ring”.

Let’s take a step back to the British Grand Prix, when the engines were restarted after the summer break…
“The recovery at Silverstone was positive. The track conditions were good all weekend, both in terms of temperatures and grip, which was good from Friday and then progressed without ups and downs. Already on Friday we were only two tenths from the track record, then qualifying on Saturday was very fast, with four drivers under the previous record. The performances were good and I think there was no shortage of entertainment either. In addition to the records broken, with the race distance reduced by 18 seconds compared to the previous one in 2022, there were no problems with wear or temperature: at Silverstone sometimes you can get a blister on the rear, but this year everything was under control”.

I know there’s one thing that made you particularly proud about the British weekend…
“The good news is that in the Sprint all five specifications we had available were used. This means that they all worked well, even if most of the riders used the medium on the front and the soft on the rear. In the long race, however, the choice that was most popular was that of a pair of medium tyres, precisely for a question of stability and consistency of performance”.

One of those who used the hard on the front was Aleix Espargaro, and he did so by saying that Aprilia could not afford to fit the medium. Is this really the case?
“Aprilia and Aleix need a lot of support up front. For me it’s more a question of rider feeling, in fact not all the Aprilias had it. Only he and Raul Fernandez had it. I think they can use the medium, but it’s more a matter of the rider, who likes to have a lot of support when braking. For me he could have also used the medium, but he wouldn’t have been able to have the race he did. He should have been more on the defensive, instead with the hard he was able to attack, staying close to the leaders for more than half the race”.

The Silverstone weekend was perhaps the first this year in which the riders had to try to manage the tyres a bit and in these conditions Enea Bastianini came out. In your opinion, what is the secret that allows the rider from Rimini to make the difference every time he has to face situations of this type?
“We had already seen in past seasons that Enea is someone who knows how to manage the tyres well. For me his secret is that he manages not to attack the tyre in the first 3-4 laps, when it is new. Let’s say that he accommodates it, then when it is stabilized and at temperature, then he starts to attack and the tyre resists much better. When the tyre is new, it is more fragile. So if you attack it too much in the first 2-3 laps, you ruin the surface and it is more difficult to keep it in good condition. But we had already seen this from the first times that Enea used our tyres and I think it is the factor that guarantees his extra performance. But there are also other riders who are able to do it: for example I think of Bagnaia, who however is sometimes forced to attack the tyre to stay in front because he is playing for the championship, paying the price in some cases”.