At the time, the unprecedented victory of a friendly Cal Crutchlow eclipsed the major problems encountered by certain drivers at the end of a Czech Republic Grand Prix wet and twisty. But the party is over, the time for analysis has come and it is the images of Iannone with his front tire in tatters that begin to dominate.
This Brno meeting gave us sensational images. The spectacular recovery of Márquez during the tests, the maneuver of the same Márquez between two Yamahas during qualifying, the terrible fall of Tom Luthi in Moto2. But also this tire beforeAndrea Iannone breaking down at the end of the race. There were fears for the safety of the pilot who Michelin assured had never been questioned, the images being misleading. Either. But the emotion was palpable upon arrival and tongues began to loosen among those who had experienced the same problem. And who had also made the wrong choice.
Andrea Dovizioso, also a Ducati rider, went with his remark. However, the cabal will not take place against the Bibendum. In the paddock, there are also voices defending Michelin, insisting more on the fact of a bad choice rather than a fault on the part of the manufacturer. So, the HRC man, Livio Suppo, Racing Consultant : " I read these reviews, and they are unfair » he says on GP One. " We did have a tire that allowed us to race in complete safety, that was the hard part. But since he had a lot more during the warm-up, no one tried him. Then the race started when it was no longer raining and everyone thought of an event where we would change bikes ". Like at the Sachsenring.
« Then the soft tire was taken and it was not able to go the distance. Michelin is not to blame for this because they didn't do anything wrong, they didn't make any mistakes. Now it is difficult to convince a driver to take a tire he has never tried. So maybe we could have had twenty more minutes of testing before the race. But it's not easy to set up either ».
Finally, some regretted that the race management did not stop Iannone sinking for safety reasons. There too, suppo calls for calm: This is the kind of very complicated decision to make for a race director. In Iannone's case, he continued to set fairly fast lap times while losing chunks of tires. We may have to talk about it again with a clear head. This situation was exceptional, I don't remember ever having experienced one like it. We will have to discuss this among ourselves later. But if you opt for safety alone, then you have to stop everyone and start again ". What happened before...
