MotoGP Feature - Confidence High for 2007
23/11/2006
With the fall of the final MotoGP flag of 2006 at Valencia – to a highly satisfying Ducati-Bridgestone one-two race result – the first-generation 990cc machines became instantly redundant.
The same was not true of the tyres. While the engines for next year’s new MotoGP machines will lose 20 percent of their capacity and horsepower, the new 800cc prototypes that came out for testing just days after that final race were running on the same tyres as their bigger brothers.
The specialised development will come only later, once more knowledge has been acquired and data processed. But it is certain that things will change, with a different emphasis on what is needed to make tyres that will win races.
Early tests at Valencia saw next year’s Bridgestone teams on a variety of machinery. Ducati and Suzuki had 800cc prototypes, but Kawasaki had only their old 990. One of next year’s new teams, the Gresini Honda squad with GP-winning riders Marco Melandri and Toni Elias, also ran a 990 machine. Two weeks later at Sepang, but for Suzuki, there was a skeleton crew – no Ducatis, one new 800 Kawasaki, and one 800 Honda, for Elias alone.
Even so, Bridgestone tyre engineers plan to have special 800-style tyres by the time the winter testing ban closes off the final round of tests at Jerez at the end of November.
Hiroshi Yamada, Bridgestone Motorsport's Manager of Motorcycle Racing, explained how the company expects to tackle a development path that will take them to unexplored territory.
“It’s difficult to say at the moment exactly what will be needed. Now we have been testing the current tyres with 800cc bikes, without any big problems at the moment.
“Even with the same shape and construction tyres as the current bike, riders already feel that the handling is better.
“I don’t think the lap times will be slower, even with less power. I think we need to keep the same lap times as this year, and maybe from the middle of next season the lap time will be even faster,” said Yamada – a view supported by test times so far. At Sepang, the Suzukis even improved on their 990cc race-tyre lap times.
“But the power of the engine will be decreased – 20 percent less capacity, so this means we need to have more cornering speed to keep the lap time,” explained Yamada.
The implication for the tyre engineers is clear. “This means we need good handling, and good edge grip.” Working with compounds, profile and construction, engineers need to make a tyre that keeps hanging on harder than ever, at lean angles of 60 degrees or more.
The other question concerns durability. With less horsepower, the new machines should be easier on tyres than the old 990s, with less wheelspin, and less of the rubber-punishing torque of the bigger engines. But this all remains to be seen.
“I don’t know how much the traction or durability will be affected – if we can maybe reduce traction in favour of side grip, or how much traction we need to keep,” he said.
This will be established by testing, but with all the machines still at the beginning of development, such basic elements as chassis dimensions and weight balance are not yet finalised.
“At the moment, all manufacturers are focusing on development of the new bikes, and then we can develop a tyre for those machines,” said Yamada.
“By the time the winter testing ban comes on the first of December, we would like to have established the right direction – because from the first new tests at the end of January to the beginning of the season in the first week of March is a very short time. We have only two months before the first race.”