~ Auto Buzz ~: LOOKING AHEAD: MotoGP 2015 As in 2014, MotoGP success will depend heavily on the spec Bridgestone tire.

A year ago, as MotoGP’s pre-2014-season testing began at Sepang, it became clear that the tires had changed. They had less of the edge grip so essential to lap time for Yamaha ’s corner-speed setup, but more “abuse tolerance” necessary for the throttle-steering used by the more dirt-track-based style of Honda ’s riders. We were told the major purpose of the changes was to achieve faster tire warm-up, a real safety issue. Such changes have taken place through the history of road racing because the tire companies cannot make a different tire for each machine setup or for each rider’s individual style. So what they do is seek a combination of qualities that will most closely track the needs of top riders. As an example, the tires supplied to Ducati by Bridgestone before Bridgestone became the series spec-tire supplier were well-adapted to that motorcycle—enough so that Ducati rider Casey Stoner could win the 2007 world championship. But when Bridgestone began to supply tires for the whole paddock and not just for Ducati, the tires changed to achieve a best average match to the top 10 riders in the field. In making this change, Bridgestone surely somewhat handicapped Ducati, but had the company continued to make “Ducati tires” it would have handicapped the rest of the field. This is one of the problems inherent in the spec-tire concept.

Yamaha’s riders struggled to become competitive through the first half of 2014. Just last week, though, a fitter-looking Jorge Lorenzo said this: “In 2014, we found at the end a good base and could fight for the podium regularly during the second half of the season.” (The Yamaha MotoGP photos in this story, incidentally, are of the new YZR-M1 race bike in its proper 2015 livery.) Having to adapt motorcycles to new tires is as old as racing. Harley racing manager, the late Dick O’Brien, complained of this in 1969, and it has been usual since then for changes in carcass stiffness, etc, to require corresponding changes not only in suspension spring and damping rates (which function mainly when the bike is closer to upright) but also in lateral chassis stiffness (which takes over some suspension functions when the machine is at high lean angles). This is another inherent problem of spec tires—different tire suppliers are not present to facilitate this adaptation process. Clearly, it is much more expensive to adapt bike to the tires than the tires to the bike. In the pre-spec era, Michelin could alter tire characteristics overnight (European events only) and fly new tires in the next morning.

Every scheme has its problems— in the pre-spec era, the best hand-built tires were not available to the whole paddock. Choose a way of doing things and make the best of it! Ducati’s long-awaited new bike, designed under the direction of race manager Liugi Dall’Igna, will not be ready for the Sepang test February 4. Will it be a substantial step forward? All last season, Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso achieved great things in practice but warned us not to expect such speed to last race distance. And so it generally turned out. Suzuki re-joins MotoGP this year but the team’s limited resources will be stretched thin by the high costs of MotoGP. Build test chassis, instrument them, test them, analyze results, build the next chassis. We enjoy the pageantry of the MotoGP grid and highest-level racing action, but the underlying drama is the struggle between Dorna’s Carmelo Ezpeleta and Honda’s team manager Shuhei Nakamoto. Ezpeleta cannot easily sell a Honda-dominated series to viewers, and Nakamoto must resist any rules change that reduces Honda’s technological leverage. Up to now, Honda has rejected a rev limit and spec software, but the latter is to be imposed at mid-season. The battle continues and we will be fascinated.