Grande Prémio Tissot de Portugal 2023: a start to the season full of new products
• The 2023 MotoGP™ season starts for the first time in Portugal
• A new format for the event and the debut of the Sprint Race
• New tire allocation: Two tires for the rear and three for the front
The 2023 MotoGP season starts for the first time in the history of the championship in Portimão, where the Grande Prémio Tissot de Portugal will be full of new features.
Located on the heights of Portimão, the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve offers a capacity of 100 seats, a development of 000 km and has 4,6 turns, nine on the right and six on the left. The pit straight, almost a kilometer long, allows drivers to exceed 15 km/h. Its hilly profile, including the descent towards the first turn, earned the Portuguese circuit the nickname “high-speed slide”.
From this year, the race weekend format is being overhauled by Dorna Sports, with revamped free practice sessions and the introduction of a Sprint race on Saturday afternoon. The latter will take place over a distance halved compared to that of the main race, and will allow the first nine classified drivers to score half of the points usually awarded during a Grand Prix.
The new schedule applies from Friday. While FP1 remains unchanged, FP2 has been lengthened and now lasts an hour, fifteen minutes longer than last year, so that teams can work on bike settings for qualifying and the race. The cumulative times of the first two free practice sessions determine direct access to Q2 for the first ten drivers.
Saturday starts with 30 minutes of FP3. New this season, this session no longer affects qualifying. Q1 and Q2 will then compete to determine the starting order for both the Grand Prix and the Sprint race. As has been the case in the past, the two fastest drivers in Q1 will advance to Q2. Organized on Saturday afternoon, the Sprint race will contribute to the spectacle of the race weekend. FP4 has been removed in favor of the Sprint race.
On Sunday, the action always starts with the morning warmup, reduced to ten minutes, and continues from 14:00 p.m. (local time) with the Grande Prémio de Portugal 2023. The event will consist of 25 laps, for a distance of 115 kilometers . The race lap record was set by Frenchman Fabio Quartararo last year, with a time of 1'39.435, while the absolute circuit record has already been beaten by around ten drivers during tests on 11 and 12 last March. It belonged to Francesco Bagnaia, who stopped the clock in 2021 at 1'38.725.
This year, Michelin is offering a new allocation of MICHELIN Power Slicks tires consisting of three rubber notches at the front and two at the rear, one less than in 2022. In Portugal, the choice for the front is will operate between three symmetrical tires: one Soft Drinks, Medium and Hard, while at the rear the drivers can opt as an alternative for the tire Soft Drinks (asymmetric) or for Medium (symmetrical).
In spring, temperatures are mild in the Algarve, but with the ocean nearby, the weather can change quickly. The MICHELIN Power Rain tire allocation is renewed compared to last year and consists of a Soft Drinks and Medium symmetrical for the front, as well as a Soft Drinks and Medium asymmetrical for the rear, equipped with a harder right side.
« The developments proposed by Dorna Sports this year are very interesting: they allow us to offer more spectacle to the public, without increasing the quantity of tires consumed during the weekend. »Says Piero Taramasso, the director of the Michelin Two-Wheel competition. “ We have even reduced the overall quantity of tires produced, transported and recycled over each weekend, by limiting the allocation of rear tires to two specifications. This decision stems from the actual use of the tires during previous seasons, since one of the three rear specifications systematically remained in the pits. These tires were preheated and, sometimes, were at risk of being recycled without having been used. »
« Moving forward, we have confirmed the Soft and Medium as expected. To complete the allocation, we finally decided in favor of the 2022 Hard tire. Indeed, in addition to these three tires, during the official tests at the beginning of March we brought a new Medium/Hard which also gave full satisfaction. We therefore decided the final allocation according to the weather forecasts, which announce 24° C in the air, therefore between 30° and 35° C on the track, with the objective of covering the widest possible temperature range. »
« Finally, I would like to underline the great level of passion and commitment of the entire Michelin Motorsport team, which worked hard during the off-season and which is starting 2023 under the best auspices. »
