The question of Yamaha's choice of medium rear rubber, instead of the hard tire, to race at Silverstone, scene of the twelfth and final round on the calendar of this MotoGP season, continues to cause ink and saliva to flow. And for good reason: he is identified as one of the factors in a failed British Grand Prix by championship leader Fabio Quartararo, who saw his lead in the general classification begin to be dangerously reduced at the start of the summer break. Dovizioso's chief mechanic, Ramon Forcada, commented on this failure by emphasizing the lack of courage of the Yamaha engineers who had not tested this compound during past test sessions. Which is not entirely correct if you listen to Darryn Binder, Yamaha rider at RNF…
In the chapter “we are smarter afterwards”, we will place in the file this new concrete case of the choice of the rear rubber at Yamaha when British Grand Prix. While the race demonstrated that it would have been necessary to choose the hard rear, the M1 drivers drove on medium, Andrea Dovizioso except, however, which brought him nothing more... But Ramón Forcada, his chief engineer at RNF, mentioned that Yamaha had not been bold when deciding on the starting grid, because without any feedback on the behavior of the hard compound. The medium was therefore mounted, for safety.
We know the rest with a critical commentary from fabio quartararo at the arrival. But you also have to listen to the rookie Darryn binder who was able to get an idea of this tire on Friday. On speedweek we thus discover his words: “ when I tested the hard tire during FP2 on Friday, I couldn't get it up to temperature. So the tire was not an option. After that, it's still hard to say if he would have been a better choice. I'm still happy to have finished the race and not to have finished last ».
Darryn Binder: “ At the end of the race I was only in survival mode and tried to see the checkered flag«
Brad’s brother also recounts his ordeal with the medium: “ my pace at the start was good » said the man who started 23rd only to find himself in the first part of the event 18th. “ But from the 10th lap my tire started to disintegrate. At the end of the race I was just in survival mode and trying to see the checkered flag. I expected the tire to last longer. I think I overworked it a little at the start of the race ". A scenario identical to that of Fabio Quartararo who was playing at the top of the table.
« I played with every button in the cockpit during the race, I tried everything to reduce tire wear. I ended up setting the smoothest mode so the race would sort of end. Our strategy was to reduce the power from lap 8, but I pressed the button after lap 3 »Adds Darryn Binder who concludes: “ I know I'm strong in the first few laps and my best lap in the race is usually passable. I just need to learn how to keep pace throughout the race and manage the tires better to be competitive at the end ". On arrival, the pilot 24 years old who made the big leap from Moto3 to MotoGP this year finished 20th in his English race with 33,653 seconds behind the winner Pecco Bagnaia.
