MotoGP

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Nope, MM kept the same pace all race long on both bikes. Rossi couldn't keep the pace on his second bike. He bemoaned it in his interview post race.

 

I heard the Yamaha engineers could hear a faint whining sound on his second bike in Parc ferme. This was however confirmed not to be a bike issue as the whining continued even after the bike was switched off.........

 

 

Seriously though, the way I see it is that the race was not ideal but it was equal for everyone. These situations separate the true racers from the rest, as you saw with Jl imploding spectacularly.

 

Oh big up to Brad Binder, leading the Moto3 championship now.

he attributed it to issues with his rear tyre. Which, considering Michelin's track record so far, is not unlikely. Seems like a highly inconsistent tyre. 

Edited April 4, 2016 by Myles Mayhew

[mtbride]

Bridgestone had similar issues few years back, it's a teething thing, Michelin will get it right at some stage, just take time, unfortunately at the expense of rider safety ...

Edited April 4, 2016 by Kraggie

[mtbride]

Bridgestone:

 

 

[Steven Knoetze (sk27)]

he attributed it to issues with his rear tyre. Which, considering Michelin's track record so far, is not unlikely. Seems like a highly inconsistent tyre. 

 

My post/joke, was to just to emphasise that when Stoner used to be critical of these kinds of issues; similar to what VR is doing of late; he was dubbed Stoner the Moaner.

VR may very well have had tyre issues but it could also have been down to setup on his 2nd machine just not being right. They can never get both bikes exactly the same, each machine will have it's own unique characteristic's. It was genius for MM to start on his 2nd machine. That being said he does have a history of going faster on his second machine, just think back to COTA qualifying, where he parked his 1st bike, sprinted 200m down pit-lane and still stuck it on pole.

 

COTA up next which is very much Marquez territory, Lorenzo has a lot to prove now.

Should be a great race if we can avoid pitstops...

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

My post/joke, was to just to emphasise that when Stoner used to be critical of these kinds of issues; similar to what VR is doing of late; he was dubbed Stoner the Moaner.

VR may very well have had tyre issues but it could also have been down to setup on his 2nd machine just not being right. They can never get both bikes exactly the same, each machine will have it's own unique characteristic's. It was genius for MM to start on his 2nd machine. That being said he does have a history of going faster on his second machine, just think back to COTA qualifying, where he parked his 1st bike, sprinted 200m down pit-lane and still stuck it on pole.

 

COTA up next which is very much Marquez territory, Lorenzo has a lot to prove now.

Should be a great race if we can avoid pitstops...

Definitely not by me, but I get your point. 

 

Still. Tyres are one of the most important things on the bike. And with the inconsistency of the tyres being supplied by Michelin so far, it's not hard to see how one "hard" tyre may be entirely different to another... 

[bertusras]

Because there was a catastrophic failure of Scott Reading's rear tyre on the free practice, and Michelin removed BOTH rear tyre options as they shared the same construction characteristics. They introduced another Hard option, but Race Direction limited the stints to 10 laps for safety reasons. 

 

Michelin need to up their game, properly. 

 

Nope not quite. They initially pulled both tyres from the allocation and would have introduced a different construction medium tyre (presumably COTA allocation) in the Sunday morning additional practice, however this practice didn't happen due to rain. Because no-one had the option to test the new construction tyre, they had to go back to the two old tyres, and limit the laps on those tyres.

 

I think that this situation was managed quite well in the end, whatever the fans may think. These riders are putting their lives on the lines, not for our viewing pleasure.

 

And like someone mentioned earlier, teething issues. There has been no testing at this circuit, the track is barely used throughout the year and is very very green and dirty. You have to design for certain parameters and you can't cover all eventualities unfortunately. Baz and Redding are the two heavies riders in the paddock on two of the most powerful machines, they are going to push the engineering boundaries. It's unfortunate that it had happened, but understandable.

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Nope not quite. They initially pulled both tyres from the allocation and would have introduced a different construction medium tyre (presumably COTA allocation) in the Sunday morning additional practice, however this practice didn't happen due to rain. Because no-one had the option to test the new construction tyre, they had to go back to the two old tyres, and limit the laps on those tyres.

 

I think that this situation was managed quite well in the end, whatever the fans may think. These riders are putting their lives on the lines, not for our viewing pleasure.

 

And like someone mentioned earlier, teething issues. There has been no testing at this circuit, the track is barely used throughout the year and is very very green and dirty. You have to design for certain parameters and you can't cover all eventualities unfortunately. Baz and Redding are the two heavies riders in the paddock on two of the most powerful machines, they are going to push the engineering boundaries. It's unfortunate that it had happened, but understandable.

Thanks for the clarification. And yes, agreed on the last point. 

[Steven Knoetze (sk27)]

Nope not quite. They initially pulled both tyres from the allocation and would have introduced a different construction medium tyre (presumably COTA allocation) in the Sunday morning additional practice, however this practice didn't happen due to rain. Because no-one had the option to test the new construction tyre, they had to go back to the two old tyres, and limit the laps on those tyres.

 

I think that this situation was managed quite well in the end, whatever the fans may think. These riders are putting their lives on the lines, not for our viewing pleasure.

 

And like someone mentioned earlier, teething issues. There has been no testing at this circuit, the track is barely used throughout the year and is very very green and dirty. You have to design for certain parameters and you can't cover all eventualities unfortunately. Baz and Redding are the two heavies riders in the paddock on two of the most powerful machines, they are going to push the engineering boundaries. It's unfortunate that it had happened, but understandable.

 

Read Dave Emmets article on the handling of this situation, similar to PI 2013.

It was handled poorly, no standard strategy yet in place, they issued statement after statement changing the procedure right up to an hour before the race.

They need a standard contingency for these situations where every team knows exactly what is happening and when.

I realize each situation is unique but race direction was very much confused, being directed by the teams response asking 'what if it rains?", "what if it doesn't rain?", etc....

[Patchelicious]

Reddings rear tyre delaminated, hitting him on the back ... like Baz had in the Sepang testing.

 

So they were cautious to run full distance with the tyre, thus split the race up in 2 halves for safety. As well as forcing the riders to run a higher minimum pressure.

 

 

Because there was a catastrophic failure of Scott Reading's rear tyre on the free practice, and Michelin removed BOTH rear tyre options as they shared the same construction characteristics. They introduced another Hard option, but Race Direction limited the stints to 10 laps for safety reasons. 

 

Michelin need to up their game, properly. 

 

 

Michelen weren't happy with the tyres. Was a safety issue. AFAIK.

 

Sweet jeeezuz!! That is BULLSHUT.

[Patchelicious]

Nope not quite. They initially pulled both tyres from the allocation and would have introduced a different construction medium tyre (presumably COTA allocation) in the Sunday morning additional practice, however this practice didn't happen due to rain. Because no-one had the option to test the new construction tyre, they had to go back to the two old tyres, and limit the laps on those tyres.

 

I think that this situation was managed quite well in the end, whatever the fans may think. These riders are putting their lives on the lines, not for our viewing pleasure.

 

And like someone mentioned earlier, teething issues. There has been no testing at this circuit, the track is barely used throughout the year and is very very green and dirty. You have to design for certain parameters and you can't cover all eventualities unfortunately. Baz and Redding are the two heavies riders in the paddock on two of the most powerful machines, they are going to push the engineering boundaries. It's unfortunate that it had happened, but understandable.

It is understandable from a race direction and rider point of view, absolutely, its their lives!! But not acceptable from Michelin, they must get their act together then. Cant let them endager riders lives with crappy tyres, endager pit crew with rushed stops and ruin good racing.

[bertusras]

It is understandable from a race direction and rider point of view, absolutely, its their lives!! But not acceptable from Michelin, they must get their act together then. Cant let them endager riders lives with crappy tyres, endager pit crew with rushed stops and ruin good racing.

 

Since SK27 mentioned David Emmett, here's an extract from said article:

 

Are the Ducatis to Blame for the Tire Problems?

 

The Ducati disaster put Valentino Rossi right back on the podium (which he shared with Marc Márquez in a very frosty atmosphere), along with Dani Pedrosa. Pedrosa called it “the luckiest race of my life,” but Rossi was less inclined to put it down to luck.

 

Yes, the podium would not have been possible without the Ducatis crashing ahead of him, Rossi said. But if the Ducatis hadn’t had the tire issue on Saturday, this would have been a normal race over 25 laps, and he was more than prepared for that.

 

“Sincerely during the weekend with the Yamaha we never have the problem with the tyres. So for the problem of another bike we have to change everything when we don’t suffer,” Rossi said.

He was not the only rider to point the finger of blame at the Ducatis. The Tech 3 riders were withering in the criticism of the decision to run a flag-to-flag race because of the problems for Ducati.

 

“The circumstances of today’s race were too biased to one manufacturer that seemed to have problems,” Bradley Smith said. “That’s what I believe why the other manufacturers need to fight against the tire company, because to take away our strength of being strong at the end of races and basically hand the perfect scenario to the red bikes is hard to deal with.”

 

Pol Espargaro was similarly unhappy. Talking to Catalan radio, he was dismissive of the entire situation.

 

“The race was made like this because of Ducati,” he said. “We keep saying that Michelin has many problems, but the riders with problems were the Ducatis. They have 17 km/h more top speed than us, and they are using up their tires. If Ducati can’t use these tires, then maybe they should turn down the power. Or maybe produce tires especially for them.”

 

Speaking to GPOne.com, rider manager Carlo Pernat put it down to the combination of new tires and new electronics. The tires, Pernat said, had been developed with the factory electronics, the spec electronics only being available from the Valencia test.

 

The spec electronics can do a lot less to save the tire, and so that was the likely cause of the problems. There is some validity to that point of view.

 

 

I don't know. The racing felt pretty good to me. First 10 laps was tense between Marc and Rossi, the second half equally tense between first Vinales chasing, and then the two Dukes.

[Long Wheel Base]

I'm not a fan of Lorenzo but I'll give credit where credit is due, he does do a rather cool bike change.

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Since SK27 mentioned David Emmett, here's an extract from said article:

 

 

I don't know. The racing felt pretty good to me. First 10 laps was tense between Marc and Rossi, the second half equally tense between first Vinales chasing, and then the two Dukes.

They do have a point. Only Duc has the problem, at the moment. And they ARE harsher on the tyres than all the others. 

[KingTJ]

Double post....a bit like the ducati's taking each other out☺

Edited April 4, 2016 by KingTJ

[KingTJ]

Honda is nowhere without Marquez, DP finished almost 30sec. behind him. Rossi and DP were both very lucky to be on the podium yesterday.

 

JL seems to not want to race if everything is not going his way, he even seems to lose interest and stop concentrating. A bit one dimensional from him.

 

I wonder how much difference there are in the 2 bikes each rider has. They always seem to have a favorite one, but surely they should be identical? As I understand MM started the race on bike 2, and did the 2nd halve on bike 1, Rossi other way around, might explain why Rossi was faster in 1st halve and MM 2nd halve?

Thats the same gripe i have with him...he is a great time trialist but a **** racer

[KingTJ]

My post/joke, was to just to emphasise that when Stoner used to be critical of these kinds of issues; similar to what VR is doing of late; he was dubbed Stoner the Moaner.

VR may very well have had tyre issues but it could also have been down to setup on his 2nd machine just not being right. They can never get both bikes exactly the same, each machine will have it's own unique characteristic's. It was genius for MM to start on his 2nd machine. That being said he does have a history of going faster on his second machine, just think back to COTA qualifying, where he parked his 1st bike, sprinted 200m down pit-lane and still stuck it on pole.

 

 

COTA up next which is very much Marquez territory, Lorenzo has a lot to prove now.

Should be a great race if we can avoid pitstops...

You are going to become known "Steve Knoetze the VR Hater"....if you continue with the VR dishing ☺