MotoGP: Michelin To Be Spec Tire For MotoGP In 2016
Paul Carruthers | May 23, 2014
Photography by Gold & Goose
Dorna announced today that Michelin will take over from Bridgestone as the spec-tire manufacturer in the MotoGP World Championship beginning in 2016 and it turns out that they didn’t have much competition: The French company was the only tire manufacturer to submit a formal tender.
At the beginning of May 2014 Dorna, in agreement with the FIM, opened a tender for tire manufacturers interested in becoming Official Tire Supplier to MotoGP. Interested tire manufacturers were able to request the technical specifications from Dorna’s Managing Director Javier Alonso, with three potential tire suppliers initially expressing an interest – before Michelin alone made a formal tender before the May 22 deadline.
The next step in the process will be the drawing out of a commercial agreement between Dorna and Michelin as Official Tire Supplier, Dorna says, with “Michelin having already clearly proven its technical abilities to respond to the needs of a demanding Grand Prix racing schedule.”
Dunlop Motorsport issued a release today explaining why it didn’t submit a tender to Dorna.
“MotoGP continues to be a very strong global event, and we are proud of our long-standing relationship with the MotoGP organizers through our continued supply to the FIM Moto2 and Moto3 World Championships,” said Sanjay Khanna, the managing director of Dunlop Motorsport and Motorcycle EMEA. “Dunlop is in the fortunate position of having many strong partnerships with motorcycle manufacturers and leading championships around the world. We have taken the decision to focus on developing and supplying tires for these important partners for the immediate future.
“We believe our performance in events where there is open-competition between tire manufacturers, such as road racing and the FIM Endurance World Championship, prove that Dunlop has the capability to win races at the top-level of motorcycle racing. However, with such a diverse range of racing activities already planned for 2015 and beyond, we have chosen not to tender to be the Official MotoGP supplier on this occasion. We do not rule it out as an opportunity in the future.”
Paul Carruthers | Editor
Paul Carruthers took over as the editor of Cycle News in 1993 after serving as associate editor since starting his career at the publication in 1985. Carruthers has covered every facet of the sport in his near-28-year tenure at America’s Daily Motorcycle News Source.
