As a safety measure, Michelin has therefore decided to remove its Medium and Hard rear tires to replace them with an “extra type” tire (See the official press release).
Valentino Rossi, Massino Meregalli, Marc Marquez reacted to this security measure.
Valentino Rossi: “This new allocation changes the situation a lot because I thought they were going to remove the Medium and we could race with the Hard, but unfortunately we have to race with a tire that we have never tried before.
After this decision we have to start from scratch, so we hope that we can understand the situation tomorrow during the half-hour Warm Up and that this tire is safer. Everyone is in the same boat, so we'll see what happens tomorrow. »
Massimo Meregalli, Movistar Yamaha Team Director: “We respect the decision of Michelin and the IRTA, the aim of which is to prioritize the safety of drivers. The well-being and safety of our pilots comes first to us, before anything else. Luckily, we will have an additional 30-minute session during which we will do our best to adapt the bike to its new tires. We have no other choice, so we will do our best to get the best possible performance from its tires. »
Marc Marquez:“After this decision from Michelin, I think tomorrow will be a bit of a leap into the unknown because everyone will have a different tire than what we had all weekend. Let's wait and see how it works.
We will have two warm-ups, one of 30 minutes and one of 20, to collect information and we will have to see if everything is working well. Hopefully they won't be too different compared to the tires we've used so far. “
Dani Pedrosa: “Michelin decided to change the rear tire for one that we don't know. This is clearly an unknown, and for this reason we will have an additional session but more than likely with lower track temperatures than we will have in the race.
We don't know how it will work or what settings we need to make. We can't say much until tomorrow, and then we'll see how this new tire performs. »
Source: crash.net
