MotoGP tires soap opera, new episodes on the horizon....

[Speeddog]

I wouldn't quite say "Boom Goes The Dynamite!", but it seems the match is lit and getting close to the fuse....

http://www.motomatters.com/news/2014/04/18/end_in_sight_for_bridgestone_as_motogp_t.html

[koko64]

Yep, it started at the Island and COTA was the last straw. Having to build a bike for the tyre is the tail wagging the dog. If Bridgestone cant meet demand then the load under similar rules should be spread over a few mfrs imo. Restriction in tyre numbers is fine if the mfr has made them for your bike. Nothing like competition to improve tyre technology.

[Speeddog]

A bit more info in this as well:
http://sport.bt.com/motogp/david-emmett-break-from-routine-cost-lorenzo-at-austin-S11363894342532

You'll have to go past the details of why JLo suffered another brain fart.

[koko64]

The past paragraph says it all.
The one mfr rule will have to change as companies will find it too expensive. Team costs are one thing but the cost to the tyre mfrs is another.
Its also led Ducati down a bad path of being a pale imitation of a Hondaha with Desmo.

[Speeddog]

My understanding is that Bridgestone's current budget for MotoGP tires is ~20M Euro.
The tires are provided free to the 23 riders, covering 18 races, using 20 slick tires per race.
And then there's testing on top of that, 120 tires per rider.

Comes out to ~1800 Euro per tire.
Complicated by the fact that there's rain tires, which are a different allocation.
And that, for example, they get 9 front slicks, but a maximum of 6 of one compound... so if the harder compound is un-usable, then they really only get 6 of the softer tires to do the whole event.


I'm imagining that given what DORNA wants, several carcasses and more compounds at each race, they'll get proposals back that are 10M -20M Euro per year cost to DORNA.

[Speeddog]

More info here, if you can rear German it'll be much better than this:
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.speedweek.com%2Fmotogp%2Fnews%2F55095%2FMotoGP-WM-Ein-Plaedoyer-fuer-die-Einheitsreifen.html&edit-text=

Article says 15,000 tires per year, my calculation was 11,000.
So that rounds out to a bit over 1300 Euro per tire.

[Speeddog]

This sounds really familiar:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2008721-does-nascar-have-a-tire-problem-that-needs-to-be-solved?utm_source=outbrain.com&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=NASCAR

[thought]

I def think that tires should have more options for bike development but at this point... so many different factors have been pointed at as the reason the Duc sucks that I'm a bit leery in saying that diff tires will magically make it competitive.  Also, I'd be pretty annoyed if I were Ducati and I had to redesign the bike to what the tires demanded... only to get the tires that would have worked with the original chassis a year or two later.

I'm guessing that even if the new less rigid tire came out, Duc would probably still go down the path of the stiffer JPN style carcass anyway.  They basically will have dumped millions into redesiging the bike into one that can use the tire, reverting back isnt going to be a top option.

[HotIce]

I am big supported for single tires provider. Tire is such a huge factor, that a manufacturer sucking at it for one season, can fsck up the MotoGP fairness for good.
But if it was for me, I'd have a single bike too, so that driver's handle is the one which count in the final victory

[derby]

I def think that tires should have more options for bike development but at this point... so many different factors have been pointed at as the reason the Duc sucks that I'm a bit leery in saying that diff tires will magically make it competitive.  Also, I'd be pretty annoyed if I were Ducati and I had to redesign the bike to what the tires demanded... only to get the tires that would have worked with the original chassis a year or two later.

I'm guessing that even if the new less rigid tire came out, Duc would probably still go down the path of the stiffer JPN style carcass anyway.  They basically will have dumped millions into redesiging the bike into one that can use the tire, reverting back isnt going to be a top option.

which tire do you think will be better developed, the one everybody is using, or the only only being run by a single manufacturer?

[duccarlos]

which tire do you think will be better developed, the one everybody is using, or the only only being run by a single manufacturer?

The problem is more the fact that the factory teams can pay the tire manufacturers millions to build a tire just for them, but what happens to the smaller teams? Dorna wants to go back to the days before the aliens. They want to see more Aleix Esparago's (sp?) out there on a "lower spec" bike pushing the big boys. Those days might be dead unless you go the Nascar route and simply build your own bike and the manufacturers just provide engines. That would be a sad, sad day.

[thought]

which tire do you think will be better developed, the one everybody is using, or the only only being run by a single manufacturer?

Like I said, I think Duc will just stick with the same tire that the rest of the grid will be using e.g. the stiffer tire which will probably be what everyone else is using.

I'd actually love to see a switch of tire suppliers just to shake up the grid a bit.  Those first couple of rounds on a brand new tire that no one knows will be a pretty big equalizer I think.

[koko64]

Michelin said they only wanted to be involved on a competition basis. Wonder what their position is now? Wonder if Pirelli get the new sole supplier deal, or are two race series too much for any factory? It just seems too much to be financially worth it for any one company, thereby needing a shared load. Hopefully this will bring back the tyre wars. Factory bikes win anyway.

[OT]

AFAIK, tires are made by companies in: US, GB, Italy, France, Germany, Japan, China, Korea……..

If future tires are spec and provided by a new manufacturer (its not out of the question, for example, that Heidenau or Hankook could submit a winning bid, based on price), the learning curve could be "very interesting"…

Otherwise, the only prequalified bid candidates will be the usual suspects.

This exercise might be an interesting test of MotoGP's mantra about reducing costs.

[duccarlos]

It's official...

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/mcn/sport/sportresults/motogp/2014/May/may0114-bridgestone