Michael Scott | November 22, 2023
Cycle News In The Paddock
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How Racing Suffers When The Law Is Absurd
Anarchy is attractive. The redundancy of rules and authority is because the populace is able to take responsibility for their actions. No need for regulation.
Impossible, of course, when human nature intervenes.
Less formally, motorbike racing is a kind of anarchy. Speed-mad nutters playing I-can-go-faster-than-you. Good, isn’t it?
But formalized into championships, rules become necessary. Sadly, perhaps, run-what-you-brung doesn’t cut it.
So, to 2023, we’re at a stage where an ever more detailed rule book has become so complicated that it requires a separate panel of FIM stewards for enforcement.
Tissot Sprint Race, 2023 Qatar MotoGP, Photo by Gold $ Goose
Riders are punished for a little flick of movement on the start line (putting the bike into gear can trigger this) or for straying a centimeter over the white line onto the green paint in the heat of battle. Whether or not they have gained any advantage in the process. One size fits all: no intelligent discretion applied. So, final results are decided by stewards as much as by the checkered flag.
At least everyone knows where they stand.
The latest rule, or to be precise, the latest way of applying an existing and previously unenforced rule, leaves technicians and riders playing a guessing game. A game that doesn’t really have any winners.
It is the notorious minimum tire pressure rule. It is specified by control-tire supplier Michelin, fearful that running a front tire below this number could cause damage and lead to collapse and a crash. Which wouldn’t look good on their corporate CV.
But it’s a rule that, only in the races after the summer break, more than half the grid has broken. It has united rival riders and teams in concerted condemnation. And even accusations that it not only spoils the racing, not only means that final results can only be confirmed an hour or so after the flag but actually increases rather than reduces danger.
Worst of all, it is a rule that requires seeing into the future to be sure of not breaking it.
The numbers are 1.88 bar front and 1.7 bar rear, and if pressures are below this for more than half the race (30 percent of the sprint race), it triggers a sliding scale of punishment. First, just a warning, then a second penalty, six seconds for the second, then 12, and eventually disqualification. Next year, no such latitude. Disqualification for the first offense.
It is the front that matters, and from the start, riders complained the minimum was way too high and that at 2.0 bar, the tire was already effectively over-inflated, losing grip. Cornering and braking are affected, and the risks become greater.
This gets worse as the race goes on. Unless you are running on your own (i.e., leading), the tire keeps on heating up, and the pressure rises with it. To avoid this, you must start the race with the pressure somewhere below the limit. Should you then take off in front, the pressure might never rise fast enough. Unless you slow down and let somebody pass you.
It’s a case of guesswork. Aiming at a fixed target with an unstable, moving weapon.
Enforcement of the rule began after the British GP when all bikes were fitted with a real-time system monitored by officials.
Transgressions came quickly. Vinales was the first to get a warning, Aprilia teammate Espargaro the first to incur a three-second penalty, dropped from fifth to eighth in Thailand. More followed thick and fast. Morbidelli, Raul Fernandez, Bezzecchi, Marc Marquez, Pol Espargaro, Martin, wild card Pedrosa. In Malaysia, five more: Bagnaia, Bastianini, Marini, substitute Lecuona and wild card Bautista. That’s 14 on a 22-strong grid plus two wild cards.
A rule that is broken by half the field, whether deliberately or by mistake, begins to look ridiculous. The more so when you consider how many front tires have actually failed—none. But many riders have lost the front because the pressure has climbed.
So, the law is absurd. And the potential consequences are very serious.
It could easily affect the outcome of the championship, although challenger Martin said that, with Bagnaia now in the same “warned” position, he is happy to risk a penalty at the last two races by riding with a workable lower pressure because if you are away up front “three seconds is not so much.”
The underlying reason for this front tire weakness comes from the extra stress caused by greater downforce and harder braking allowed by the latest aerodynamic and ride-height devices. Technical progress in the heat of competition. One reason to go racing.
The answer seems simple enough. It is Michelin’s duty to build a front tire strong enough to cope. But no new front is promised until 2025.
In the meantime, MotoGP will be saddled with a scandalously unfit regulation. It’s just not good enough.CN
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