The second day of the Grand Prix of the Americas saw no fewer than 17 crashes in the MotoGP category. Most focused on the morning session where the mix of cooler temperatures, a cold wind and a bumpy track even caused some riders like Marc Marquez and Aleix Espargaro to crash twice.
Nicolas Goubert, Deputy Director, Technical Director of Michelin Motorsport and Supervisor of the MotoGP program, explained that this was the consequence of excessive optimism from the French company, but especially from the riders.
Indeed, if Michelin was surprised to see its medium front tire cause so many falls in these conditions, it points out that the drivers had softer tires at their disposal which, for their part, experienced no problems.
Nichlas Goubert spoke to the press (in English): « The weekend started very well, with brilliant sunshine and a very high temperature in the afternoon and decent times. The guys were doing long runs and everything was going well.
Yesterday morning, unfortunately, it was much colder. We had something like an 18 degree difference in track temperature between yesterday afternoon and this morning. There was also humidity and a cold wind. Unfortunately, there were too many falls. The thing is that a lot of riders were very confident and kept the same tire choices they made yesterday, and started with the medium front tires.
This is where many of them had a problem with warming up. There were too many of them. When they switched to the soft tyres, it was completely different as no one crashed on the soft tyres. This was reassuring. It's a shame it was so cold.
Honestly, we were surprised that it was difficult to get the medium up to temperature. We had the medium in Argentina and even there, with fairly low track temperatures, it was OK.
We were overconfident. And the pilots too. That's why we didn't tell them at the beginning: "go with the software." Quite simply, we are still learning. You know, we had the soft tire, which would have done the job perfectly. It was just a matter of getting it ready on time and knowing the track conditions a little more. We would have advised pilots to start with the software.
If it's cold in the morning, we'll start by tenderizing it. But apparently it won't be as cold, so that's a good thing. »
The pilots, interviewed at a press conference, generally corroborated this explanation.
Marc Márquez : “The thing is that for me, this year we changed the carcass which is now quite soft. To maintain stability we went with harder tyres, and for this reason, when you have harder tyres, there is less warning and it is easy to lose the front. This is why I lost, the Honda drivers lost the front at turn #2 in Argentina. This morning it was really critical but we need to find a solution and we are working with Michelin and the drivers in the Safety Commission to find a good proposal and a good tire for the future. »
Maverick Vinales : “As Marc said, we are trying to find a better tire for the front because it was really critical today. At the same time, it wasn't really normal: yesterday so hot, today so cold. And more than the cold, there was the wind. It was very windy and the wind was cold, and because the straight is very long, it drops the temperature of the tire. It was difficult, a difficult situation. We need to improve it to at least have a chance of riding in the cold without problems. »
Valentino Rossi : “Yes, you know, I think the problem is that the drivers didn't expect that this change in conditions would have such a big effect on the tires. In fact, we had softer tires, front and rear. So we could have used these softer tires. But honestly, I was on medium because I thought that 5 or 6° less than yesterday was not a big problem to try the medium tire and the hard tire for the race. Maybe the problem was the wind, the cold wind (which prevented) the tires from starting their procedure, getting up to temperature, and then the bike was undrivable. »
In view of what happened yesterday, and in particular the explanations of Marc Márquez, it seems a shame not to have been able to try the new Michelin front tire with a stiffer carcass, and therefore possibly with softer rubber, which was prevented from being tried in Argentina (see here)... including by Marc Marquez.
However, as Nicolas Goubert told us, several new tires will be tested on the Monday following the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez, as well as on the Le Mans circuit on May 2 (see here).
