The first of the two hat-tricks that characterize the finale of the 2024 MotoGP season is nearing its conclusion. Having closed the Indonesian Grand Prix with the dominant victory of Jorge Martin, it is already time to turn our attention to that of Japan, in which the Prima Pramac Racing rider will present himself with a margin of 21 points over Pecco Bagnaia, third in Mandalika behind Pedro Acosta, who received a small yellow card related to tire pressure.
At the end of the race, in fact, the Race Direction indicated that the GasGas Tech3 driver was under investigation for having raced with a value lower than that imposed by Michelin for the front tyre. Until Sunday, in these cases we had always seen a 16″ penalty added to the race time, but this time the Spanish rookie got away with it because it was proven that there had been an air leak on his rubber The head of Michelin, Piero Taramasso, revealed to us how this conclusion was reached.
“At the end of the race it was seen that the pressure values did not respect the minimum values imposed, for this reason in parc fermé the representatives of Michelin, those of IRTA and the commissioners verified that the values transmitted by the sensor were correct, and this first test confirmed that those indicated were the correct ones. However, by observing the value curve, we could immediately deduce that there had been an air leak,” Taramasso explained to Motorsport.com.
“At the beginning, in fact, the values were higher than the minimum allowed, then the pressure dropped suddenly, from one lap to the next. Subsequently it stabilized for a few laps and, even if Pedro continued to push, increasing the temperature, the pressure continued to drop slightly, which fortunately allowed him to finish the race without problems team and the driver, but that it was generated by an external factor, however, we also re-inflated the tire to 3 bar and we were able to ascertain that there was a leak in the lower area of the tyre, near the rim”, he added.
Mandalika confirmed itself as a treacherous trail, even if this was already part of your expectations given that you had brought some special carcasses…
“It’s a really severe, demanding circuit for the tyres. For the rear because there are a lot of accelerations, then there’s a very closed asphalt, which generates very high temperatures, where it’s already very hot. Even the front is put under a lot of stress, because you spend a lot of time on the lean angle and that’s where the tire suffers. This is why the hard front had a special, reinforced carcass, as did both rear solutions, because on this one the primary objective is to control the temperature. The nice surprise was that the track was clean and offered good grip from day one and this was certainly helpful for everyone.”
However, things went rather well from the tire point of view, with very high level chronometric references…
“On Friday the riders tried all the specifications and it was immediately clear that both the soft and hard tires were equally valid at the front, while the medium was a little more difficult to use, because it didn’t offer advantages over the other two. regarding the rear, the soft had a lot of potential and a lot of grip, being softer on both sides than the average. The times were very good, because in qualifying the track record was beaten by nine tenths also performed well in the Sprint, although it could have created a problem linked to the fact that the much grip it offered could end up pushing on the front. In Sunday’s race, however, almost everyone decided to switch to medium on the rear, because they knew it would was the most consistent solution. Only Di Giannantonio started with the soft, but unfortunately we don’t know if he would have reached the end with good performances, because in general the performance level was good, with the times that remained very consistent: Bastianini, in fact, set the fastest lap on the 20th lap in 1’30″5, but Martin also managed a 1’30″7 again on the 24th lap of the 27 laps. We are happy, because what we want are tires that last until the end. It’s true that perhaps it took a few laps to get them up to temperature, but on this circuit only this type of casing can allow you to race with a certain pace.”
In fact, after the long race, some riders, including Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini, complained that they had struggled to get the medium tire up to temperature. What do you think is the reason for these difficulties?
“It’s a topic that was already talked about after the two Misano races and it was also talked about again at Mandalika. It’s clear that warming up the tires depends on the rider’s riding style, the type of bike and the balance, so you can get them up to temperature more or less well, although we have noticed that the tendency is that it takes a few more laps. And this is a sign that the bikes are increasingly unbalanced on the front with so much load on the front and a little on the rear you have to find the right technique to warm up the tyres, otherwise you always risk taking at least one lap longer than in the past”.
Now we move to Japan for the last act of the first hat-trick: what can you tell us about the Motegi track?
“It’s a circuit that we know well, given that it’s now a fixed appointment on the calendar. Furthermore, the Japanese manufacturers also use it for private tests, so we have enough data. It’s a very different circuit from Mandalika, which offers a good grip on both wet and dry surfaces and which we can define as ‘stop and go’, with a succession of violent accelerations and braking”.
In light of this, what choices did you make for the allocation of the Japanese Grand Prix?
“After using the high temperature ones at Mandalika, we return to having the standard carcasses, with three symmetrical solutions at the front and two asymmetrical ones at the rear. The compounds have the same centering as those of 2023, but they are those made with the new technology 2024. So there is no particularly relevant news.”
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