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<span style="font-size:18px;hallelujah <span style="font-size:10px;
http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/race/motogp-race/a-grand-farce-at-phillip-island/
<span style="font-size:24px;A grand farce at Phillip Island
Mat Oxley
Embarrassing. No other word for it, really. Well, apart from
incompetence on the grandest scale. Pretty much everyone involved in the
upper echelons of MotoGP was responsible for Sunday’s travesty of a
race: Bridgestone, Dorna, the FIM, the Grand Prix Permanent Bureau, the
Grand Prix Commission, IRTA, Race Direction, safety officer Franco
Uncini and safety advisor Loris Capirossi. They all failed in their duty
of care to the riders, putting them in all kinds of danger because they
hadn’t done their jobs properly.
We all make mistakes, but this was several dozen well-paid, experienced professionals failing to spot a disaster in the making.
Phillip Island hosted its first Grand Prix in 1989. Ever since it’s
been well known that the track eats tyres for breakfast, lunch and
dinner. Well, it eats the left side of the tyres, which is why
asymmetric tyres were used there before pretty much any other racetrack,
with the exception of Daytona, with its Stateside-style banking, taken
at full speed with huge g-forces going through the tyres.
Anti-clockwise Phillip Island features seven left-handers, but it’s
the last two lefts – Turns 11 and 12 – that really burn rubber. Taken in
third and then fourth gear, the riders are building speed, using high
lean angles and big handful of throttles as they fire out of 11, then
lay it into Turn 12, where they need the fastest exit for the
start/finish straight. The result is massive friction and thus sky-high
tyre temperatures that can lead to delamination or tearing.
Bridgestone aren’t alone in suffering Island ignominy. It happened to
Dunlop in Sunday’s Moto2 race (which was reduced by 50 per cent because
the tyres wouldn’t last any longer) and it’s also happened to Pirelli
in World Superbikes and Supersport.
In the days of tyre wars, the competitive urge made sure that tyre
companies tested at Phillip Island every year, because they knew it was
their biggest challenge, from both performance and safety points of
view. Thus they couldn’t afford to get it wrong.
So why didn’t Bridgestone test at Phillip Island, even though they
knew the track was resurfaced with extra-grippy asphalt last December,
which would create more friction and therefore more heat in the tyres?
Presumably because, like everyone else, they’re trying to save money.
Bridgestone have no one to beat in MotoGP, so inevitably they want to
win the race at the lowest possible cost.
When the tyre war raged – before the global financial meltdown – no
expense was spared. Michelin often made new tyres during race weekends
in Europe. Their on-track engineers would send data to their
Clermont-Ferrand HQ where new compounds were mixed on Saturday evening,
then the tailor-made tyres were loaded into a truck and raced to the
track for Sunday morning. And when it came to the flyway races,
race-by-race development meant that the companies usually flew in their
tyres. Nowadays, tyres are made much earlier and shipped to the circuits
by sea. Sea freight costs up to 10 times less than air freight, so
there’s potential savings of tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds
over a season.
So, it is Bridgestone’s fault, but it is also everyone else’s fault.
Although a MotoGP rule (regulation 1.15.1.3, if you really want to
know) puts the onus on Bridgestone to request testing of a new surface,
all the aforementioned people know that Phillip Island is cruel on
tyres, so why didn’t they demand that Bridgestone test there, or at the
very least take a swatch of the new surface for analysis? Presumably
because they didn’t think about it. So riders were racing around at over
210mph on tyres that were falling apart because no one had bothered to
think things through.
That was a disaster in itself. And then the race with its compulsory
pitstop made things look even more ridiculous. Why not just make it a
10-lap sprint and be done with it? The six-lap dash at Mugello in 2004
(after the race had been stopped due to rain) still ranks as one of the
all-time most entertaining GP races: watching the world’s best riding
every lap like it was the last, instead of pacing themselves and their
tyres, was a fascinating and unique experience.
And then there was Marc Márquez’s punishment for pitting for new
tyres too late. True, he broke the rule and knew the punishment. But
that’s not the point. The rule was made up that morning by people
covering their backsides for a mistake of epic proportions made six
months earlier. So, regardless of the fact that he copped a ridiculous
penalty for breaking a rule in a ridiculous race, he suffered for their
ineptitude. If Márquez loses the title because of the points he lost on
Sunday, MotoGP will have become pure pantomime.
Sunday wasn’t merely a shambolic joke for all involved, it was also a
huge disappointment because Phillip Island should be MotoGP at its most
glorious: it’s a wide open primal scream of a racetrack that has given
us some of the greatest races of recent decades.
Phillip Island, 2011: Marco Simoncelli came second, his best finish, ahead of Dovizioso and Pedrosa
The circuit rates as a favourite with riders because it’s dominated
by high-speed, big-balls sweepers through which riders get to play with
the bike, feel both tyres squirming and use their superior bravery to
make the difference. (And they all think they’re the bravest rider on
the racetrack!)
Ah, bravery. To prove that almighty ....-ups are nothing new in
motorcycle GP racing, I remember the 1989 Belgian GP at
Spa-Francorchamps, in the days of the superheroes: Wayne Rainey, Kevin
Schwantz, Eddie Lawson, Wayne Gardner, Mick Doohan and the rest. Spa was
(and still is) the world’s greatest racetrack but it’s also dangerous.
That event was a farce, just like Phillip Island, with the riders put
in peril by people in power who messed up. Due to typical Spa weather,
the race was stopped twice and then restarted for a third time – against
the rules – by Clerk of the Course Claude Danis, who was later rewarded
for his ignorance with the job of MotoGP safety director.
The third start took place on a soaking track: Rainey, Schwantz and
the rest aquaplaning past the Armco – tyres spinning and engine revs
peaking wildly – as they dived into Eau Rouge each lap. Schwantz led,
then crashed on the final lap. Rainey climbed to the top step of the
podium and smiled, until he was told the final race shouldn’t have
happened and therefore hadn’t happened. The results were rewritten and
taken from the combined time of the first two starts, so Lawson was
declared the winner, ahead of Schwantz and Rainey.
Wayne Rainey in 1989. Photo by Gary Watson
Rainey was understandably very angry. He and his rivals had used all
their bravery to risk their lives in the pissing rain at one of the
world’s most dangerous racetracks for absolutely nothing. A complete
disgrace. I could go on with other famous Grand Prix grand farces, but I
don’t think you’ve got the time…
plus = <span style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-family:Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(252,252,252);MCN. has PI boss saying tyre probs in Feb WSS race should've "raised a red alert
