Before the MotoGP race at the French Grand Prix, we were able to speak again with Nicolas Goubert, Deputy Director and Technical Director of competition at Michelin.
After returning to the impressive Michelin reaction between Argentina and the United States, we returned to the last race in Jerez.
Nicolas Goubert, even the most technical enthusiast gets a little lost with all these tire changes, whether they are allocations for the front or the rear...
“This year, there will be constant new products because, on the one hand, we have to adapt the products to the different circuits that we will encounter, and on the other hand we are still in the learning phase, and it will be like this all year round, where we will constantly discover new conditions. So even if everyone here expects us to know the circuit by heart; yes, we know it much better than in Argentina, yes, we know it better than Austin, but that said, we haven't done a MotoGP race, even at Le Mans, for 7 years. So we're going to learn something in every race, and we're going to try to prepare as best we can by adapting the offer. But not everything is 100% new. For example of the three front tires, two were used in Jerez, and we have a third supply in case the temperature drops drastically, even if the weather is nice today. »
Skating in Jerez…
“Yes, it was a surprise, actually. Slippery track, very high temperature on Sunday afternoon. Because on Monday, it happened the same way; the pilots didn't really complain until 14/15 p.m. because it was a little cooler. Afterwards, it deteriorates. It was actually a surprise. »
Was the carcass harder?
“We will say that it was more robust than the previous one. This is the one we have from Austin. There, people didn't complain about it at all, and they were even relatively positively surprised by the level of grip. But hey, Austin is not Jerez, and that was another story. We'll see, we tried to react here but the temperature will be an important factor. The fact that there is less grip when it is hot is a constant; whatever the tire, there is always less grip on the track when the temperature rises. »
The ideal temperature is around 25?
“For that, we also have to take the engine into account and for that we have to ask the question to the engine manufacturers, but what we often see is that the colder it is, the faster it goes (laughs). Mainly because of the engine. In addition, we know that some tracks are very slow in the afternoon, like at Sepang; if we want to time it, it's in the morning. »
If Ducati had known, they would have removed their wings at Jerez?
“(Laughs) The objective observation is that when we look at the eight Ducatis, the riders who were the most satisfied were the Avintia riders. »
Those who didn't have fins...
“The 2014 models. Afterwards, there are a lot of things that change. »
