Ninjette Newsbot
April 13th, 2012, 10:40 AM
The rider verdict on Bridgestone’s new generation MotoGP tires: “Fun”
http://image.sportrider.com/f/news/146_12040_bridgestone_new_generation_motogp_tires/41089239+ppromo_large/146-12040-+bridgestone-new-generation-motogp-tires+1.jpg
No longer providing awesome grip for the duration of the race, fears that the latest tire design would cause problems in the race never materialize (http://www.sportrider.com/news/146_12040_bridgestone_new_generation_motogp_tires/index.html)Worries that Bridgestone’s new generation MotoGP tires would be a problem proved unfounded as the race rubber performed flawlessly in the season-opening Qatar GP.
Under pressure from the riders to reduce cold tire high-sides, Bridgestone built tires that warm up faster, but at the expense of durability. Heading into the race there was some concern that tire performance would dramatically drop off or that their might be integrity issues. In the end, the worries were unwarranted. Lap times were consistent throughout, though most riders set their best lap times early on. Race winner Jorge Lorenzo set his fastest lap on the fifth of 22. Casey Stoner set his fastest lap, and the fastest lap of the race, on the fourth lap. However, his lap times increased throughout, though mostly because of his arm pump problems. Conversely, second place finisher Dani Pedrosa’s fastest lap was the 16th.
“Yeah, the rear tire this year is completely different from last year,” Lorenzo said of the new generation Bridgestone MotoGP tires. “From lap three you are completely sideways. But the pace is not dropping a lot, because you can brake… when the tank is getting less full you can brake later and later. So finally the pace is more or less the same for all the race.
“But you must be very careful, mainly in the entry of the corners, because the rear tire blocks a lot and if you are not smooth, you can have a big crash. So is fun to ride, because you are always sliding and trusting a lot the traction control, but it’s not so easy.”
Said Pedrosa, “If I remember well, I think in this race my first lap was similar to my last lap or even the fastest lap, so I think the tire are more or less consistent. Sure, much more spinning than before. Also much more chattering than before. But it’s fun. It was fun. In some corners you could see some riders going well and some others having more issues at the entry of the corners. Sometimes the tire also starts to move, but so far it was good.”
One of the riders with corner entry issues was Stoner. He found that “edge grip was definitely worse. It wants to slide a little bit more on the entry of the corner and in the middle.” But he also found that once he picked up the bike “we actually found the traction getting better and better as the race went on especially in turn 11, on the long left-hander.
“But yeah, in general we actually found the tire to be pretty good throughout the race, just on the edge after sort of four or five laps they start to go away a little bit and it stays quite consistent to the end, just slowly dropping away.”
Ducati Marlboro’s Nicky Hayden found alarmingly high tire temperatures all weekend. That led to concerns about how the second half of the race would play out.
“You know, they hung in there better than I expected, especially on the left,” he said after finishing sixth. “Sure there was some drop. We maybe had a little bit too much traction control in some places, especially the long left where (Cal) Crutchlow passed me early. He just went right under me. I was hooked up and wide open but just didn’t have enough power.”
Bridgestone’s Hiroshi Yamada said the tire temperatures Hayden and others found were caused from the engine character. “The 1000cc has more torque, of course, and the top speed is ten kilometer more than last year. So these things are more severe for the tires, of course.”
What Yamada found encouraging was that he “never saw any chunking out or problems after the race, which is also a good thing. So sometimes when tire grip goes down at the end of the race, and it’s spinning more and more, heat creates more and more and sometimes we had blister or chunking problem sometimes.”
Last year’s tires were so hard that Colin Edwards said they wouldn’t deform if you sat on them. Yamada said the new rear tire was a much different construction coupled with a new compound. The new fronts maintain the same construction, but different compounds.
“It is I think successful so far, especially for the rear construction,” Yamada said. “Everybody is happy at the beginning of the session.” Yamada hadn’t spoken to the riders immediately after the race, but he wasn’t worried. “We will see, but they cannot complain because this was their request.”
Photo Gallery: The rider verdict on Bridgestone’s new generation MotoGP tires: “Fun” - Sport Rider Magazine (http://www.sportrider.com/news/146_12040_bridgestone_new_generation_motogp_tires/index.html)
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http://image.sportrider.com/f/news/146_12040_bridgestone_new_generation_motogp_tires/41089239+ppromo_large/146-12040-+bridgestone-new-generation-motogp-tires+1.jpg
No longer providing awesome grip for the duration of the race, fears that the latest tire design would cause problems in the race never materialize (http://www.sportrider.com/news/146_12040_bridgestone_new_generation_motogp_tires/index.html)Worries that Bridgestone’s new generation MotoGP tires would be a problem proved unfounded as the race rubber performed flawlessly in the season-opening Qatar GP.
Under pressure from the riders to reduce cold tire high-sides, Bridgestone built tires that warm up faster, but at the expense of durability. Heading into the race there was some concern that tire performance would dramatically drop off or that their might be integrity issues. In the end, the worries were unwarranted. Lap times were consistent throughout, though most riders set their best lap times early on. Race winner Jorge Lorenzo set his fastest lap on the fifth of 22. Casey Stoner set his fastest lap, and the fastest lap of the race, on the fourth lap. However, his lap times increased throughout, though mostly because of his arm pump problems. Conversely, second place finisher Dani Pedrosa’s fastest lap was the 16th.
“Yeah, the rear tire this year is completely different from last year,” Lorenzo said of the new generation Bridgestone MotoGP tires. “From lap three you are completely sideways. But the pace is not dropping a lot, because you can brake… when the tank is getting less full you can brake later and later. So finally the pace is more or less the same for all the race.
“But you must be very careful, mainly in the entry of the corners, because the rear tire blocks a lot and if you are not smooth, you can have a big crash. So is fun to ride, because you are always sliding and trusting a lot the traction control, but it’s not so easy.”
Said Pedrosa, “If I remember well, I think in this race my first lap was similar to my last lap or even the fastest lap, so I think the tire are more or less consistent. Sure, much more spinning than before. Also much more chattering than before. But it’s fun. It was fun. In some corners you could see some riders going well and some others having more issues at the entry of the corners. Sometimes the tire also starts to move, but so far it was good.”
One of the riders with corner entry issues was Stoner. He found that “edge grip was definitely worse. It wants to slide a little bit more on the entry of the corner and in the middle.” But he also found that once he picked up the bike “we actually found the traction getting better and better as the race went on especially in turn 11, on the long left-hander.
“But yeah, in general we actually found the tire to be pretty good throughout the race, just on the edge after sort of four or five laps they start to go away a little bit and it stays quite consistent to the end, just slowly dropping away.”
Ducati Marlboro’s Nicky Hayden found alarmingly high tire temperatures all weekend. That led to concerns about how the second half of the race would play out.
“You know, they hung in there better than I expected, especially on the left,” he said after finishing sixth. “Sure there was some drop. We maybe had a little bit too much traction control in some places, especially the long left where (Cal) Crutchlow passed me early. He just went right under me. I was hooked up and wide open but just didn’t have enough power.”
Bridgestone’s Hiroshi Yamada said the tire temperatures Hayden and others found were caused from the engine character. “The 1000cc has more torque, of course, and the top speed is ten kilometer more than last year. So these things are more severe for the tires, of course.”
What Yamada found encouraging was that he “never saw any chunking out or problems after the race, which is also a good thing. So sometimes when tire grip goes down at the end of the race, and it’s spinning more and more, heat creates more and more and sometimes we had blister or chunking problem sometimes.”
Last year’s tires were so hard that Colin Edwards said they wouldn’t deform if you sat on them. Yamada said the new rear tire was a much different construction coupled with a new compound. The new fronts maintain the same construction, but different compounds.
“It is I think successful so far, especially for the rear construction,” Yamada said. “Everybody is happy at the beginning of the session.” Yamada hadn’t spoken to the riders immediately after the race, but he wasn’t worried. “We will see, but they cannot complain because this was their request.”
Photo Gallery: The rider verdict on Bridgestone’s new generation MotoGP tires: “Fun” - Sport Rider Magazine (http://www.sportrider.com/news/146_12040_bridgestone_new_generation_motogp_tires/index.html)
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