Technical explanations, please.

jvs9932 said:

Hey guys,

I'm a huge MotoGP fan but need some explanation on some topics. Thanks in advance for your insights!

Why does a Ducati need to be ridden with a different style than a Yamaha? What are these specific differences?

What is it about Bastianini's style of riding that lets him have tires at the end of a race but Jack Miller burns through them in half the race?

What is the difference between a low grip track and a high grip one? It would seem that every rider would benefit from more grip but apparently not.

I'm sure I have many more but this is a good start.

Thanks!
John

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p4p1 said:

I’m far from an expert but I will share my understanding.

1. Different bikes get speed different ways, ie when the Honda was an ok bike, the corner entry was where they had an advantage. Yamaha has traditionally had a bike that was able to hold high mid corner speed which is where their advantage was. The Ducati seems to be quicker if the rider brakes as deep as possible, gets it through the corner and stand the bike up as early as possible. It takes advantage of their grip and speed advantage punching out of corners.

2. This I’m not 100% sure on but I am guessing it is a lot to do with the right hand and limiting spinning the rear up. Riders will also change lines slightly, change their body positioning etc as the tyre wears to help reduce stress on the tyre.

3. The amount of grip available is the difference, though I don’t know what actually makes the grip different other than temperature. High grip does favour all riders, they will all ride faster on a track with better grip or a recently resurfaced track. Some riders, can take more advantage of that because of their riding styles, ie, high mid corner speed, getting the bike stood up and at full power etc. some riders like Marquez are happy for the bike to slide under them in low grip conditions, their feeling and reactions are better than some of their competitors. Guys that have a flat track background seems to be consistently be the guys who perform better when the grip is comparatively low, guys like Stoner, Marquez, Miller, have come from flat track, the first two excelling in more difficult conditions.

This is more tyre related but the theory is the same, in 2015 Bridgestone had 2 tyres, some had some kind of edge treatment which gave them more grip on the edge than their non treated counter parts. Although the edge grip was better for all riders and they all were able to go quicker, it gave the biggest advantage to Jorge Lorenzo because of his high corner speed style.

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