Tinfoil at the ready
If riders are the most important factor in motorcycle racing, then tires run them a very close second. The combination of the two is almost magical, each rider requiring a special mixture of properties from a tire to get the most from their riding style. The problem with having a single official tire supplier is that such tailored tires become an impossibility. And when a single tire design is used, accusations of favoring one rider over another are never far behind.
Another tire conspiracy theory achieved major proportions in Argentina. Although to call it a single tire conspiracy is to misunderstand how conspiracies work. Each faction had their own particular explanation for the Mystery of the Additional Front Tire, all of which proved to be wildly inaccurate, exactly as you might expect.
What are the facts? A brief chronology:
- When the 2016 title was settled so early, Michelin proposed to the teams that they bring the new profile front tire for 2017 to Valencia, for everyone to try. With the championship not at stake, there would be more time for experimentation, and this would give Michelin a head start on their 2017 development.
- The new profile was a big hit at Valencia, and so Michelin went ahead with this design. But there were also several reports of chatter, especially once the tires were being tested after the winter break. The new profile was slightly stiffer than the 2016 tire, so Michelin changed the carcass of the tire to make it less stiff, which helped cure the chatter.
- The Phillip Island and Qatar tests were not entirely conclusive, but for all but a handful of riders – Valentino Rossi, Andrea Iannone, and to a lesser extent Alvaro Bautista – it seemed to work well. Tire development with a single tire is led by the majority, so Michelin started working on the basis of the less stiff tire.
- At the Qatar race, a number of riders changed their minds. This is hardly surprising: racing is different to testing. Riders are pushing harder, and also taking more risk and braking deeper when overtaking. The front tire takes a bit more punishment, and that stressed it too much, especially for Honda riders such as Márquez, Pedrosa, and Crutchlow.
- In response to that, Michelin decided to test the Valencia tire once again, and decided to bring it to Argentina. But they did not have time to build a custom race tire, and only had the soft compound tires from previous tests. That tire was too soft to race on, but it could be used in the cooler conditions of the morning, and that would give enough feedback for Michelin to start making a decision about the stiffness of carcass to use.
- Then, two things happened. Strikes in Argentina delayed the delivery of the new spec tires – shipped separately, after a late decision – to the track. They arrived on Friday evening, too late to be used for practice. The Saturday weather forecast was for rain, and so the chance of the tires being tested and used was slim to nonexistent.
- As a result of all this, the fourteen riders who attended the Safety Commission on Friday evening decided not to allow the extra tire to be used. It was not a tire they would race. It was not a necessity forced on them in the name of safety. It would only increase the confusion over tires (three fronts and three rears made it hard enough to choose), turning the weekend into "a tire test" to use the words of Marc Márquez.
- Valentino Rossi did not attend the Safety Commission, preferring to spend his time with his crew in a technical debrief, trying to find solutions for the problem he is having with the front end of the Yamaha. Consequently, he had no say in the decision on the tire.
Nutters Ahoy!
Put all of these facts together, and the fans – and several prominent journalists, especially in Italy – came up with some seriously tinfoily conspiracy theories. The theories fell broadly into two camps:
1. Dorna had forced Michelin into bringing a special tire for Valentino Rossi. If it hadn't been for Rossi, the tire would never even be under consideration.
2. The "Andorra Mafia" of Marc Márquez and the Espargaro brothers bullied the Safety Commission into banning the use of the special front tire, because they are afraid of what Valentino Rossi could do on it in the race.
Both theories are nonsense, of course. Michelin only decided to bring the additional tires when the Honda riders added their voices to Rossi and Iannone after Qatar. If riders from Honda (Pedrosa, Márquez, Crutchlow) joined Yamaha (Rossi), Suzuki (Iannone) and Ducati (Bautista) in wanting the new tire, that meant that four of the six manufacturers wanted the new tire. It is worth testing, but if it is to be tested, it needs to be done properly.
And it wasn't the "Andorra Mafia" which banned the use of the additional tire. The supporters of this theory claim that Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Iannone said they had already tried the tire on Friday. That is impossible, as the tire wasn't at the track. What is possible is that both Lorenzo and Iannone were confused. The two men are both blisteringly fast, and have outstanding feel for a bike, but neither is renowned for their deep understanding of technical details. They can tell you exactly what works or what doesn't, but they are not to be trusted in explaining exactly what was used and why it worked.
You want to know the truth? You can't handle the truth!
Occam's Razor suggests that the truth is to be found in the bare facts: with little dry practice time on the cards, there was no point in trying a tire which was never going to be used. To ensure it was safe to be used, all of the riders would have to put a certain number of laps on it, and the riders and teams had far better things to be doing with their time than using a tire which will not be raced.
Michelin will now bring the test to a later event. Not Austin, as that circuit is too demanding on the tires. The most likely scenario is that the new spec tire will get a proper run out at the post-race test at Jerez. With eight hours of track time, and usually decent conditions, the riders can put the tire through its paces properly and provide real feedback without cutting in to valuable set up time.
That won't convince the conspiracy theorists, of course. But then again, conspiracy theorists don't want to be convinced, they want to have their biases confirmed. Unfortunately for them, the world doesn't work like that.
