Returning to MotoGP, Michelin used the classic identification system with different colors on the sidewalls of the tire, like Dunlop in Moto2 and 3, Bridgestone previously in MotoGP, and Pirelli in Superbike. Then the technique was refined and modernized, introducing electronics to replace the side decoration. We were talking about tire marking, it will now be about identification.
Initially, Michelin wanted to avoid a disaster occurring with a tire deliberately under-inflated by a team (in order to have a larger surface area in contact with the ground). Some teams had played the sorcerer's apprentice with the pressure from Dunlop in Moto2, and in some cases it ended very badly for the rider. The risk in MotoGP was all the greater.
Michelin therefore decided to equip its tires with a tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS). It is a classic device which made its first use on a road vehicle, the Porsche 959, in 1986. In 1996 Renault equipped its Scénic with the “Michelin PAX system” and in 1999 PSA adopted it for the Peugeot 607.
In MotoGP, this system is accompanied by an identifier allowing you to know the type (“hardness”, although the term is incorrect) of the tire used. The information is first communicated to the motorcycle's electronic unit, then to Dorna when the machine passes over one of the timing loops buried under the track. There are around fifteen or twenty per circuit, depending on its length.
What Dorna will do with the information is not yet entirely clear. It will be provided to television stations that pay rights, because it will be another commercial argument to justify the value of the product. On the other hand, non-TV journalists (non-paying, rascals!) are a little worried about not having access to it. In any case, Michelin provides the signal and then has no decision-making power, which falls exclusively to Dorna.
The first tests at Sepang, with part of the field, proved conclusive and the system should be used during the first GP of the year in Qatar.
It will be very important to remember that the identification will only become real when the driver passes the first timing loop, and not before. If a driver changes tires on the grid for example, it will not be possible to know which tire it is before the driver has completed the first loop. Electric blankets on the grill still have a bright future.
photos: MICHELIN
