[kropotkin thinks...] - 2008 Sachsenring MotoGP Race Report - The Equalizer

[Ninjette Newsbot]

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It seems entirely self-evident: the winner of any given motorcycle race on any given Sunday will be the best rider, on the best bike, with the best tires. The rider with the most horsepower, the sweetest handling and the stickiest rubber - and the skill to leverage this magic triptych - should, barring incident, win every race.

And that's what's so great about racing in the rain. Horsepower becomes irrelevant, as any surfeit of power simply disappears in wheel spin; electronic traction control quickly becomes so intrusive that it slows you down rather than speeding you up; handling characteristics which have been a major disadvantage in the dry lose their relevance, as the lower speeds being reached aren't pushing the handling envelope quite so brutally. The rain takes all those factors and throws them overboard, reducing the racing to its most basic elements: The rider who can judge the limits of traction most precisely - and more importantly, dares to go looking for just where those limits are - will win the race. His bike may be a stable-full of horsepower short, he may be struggling with grip in the dry, the bike may refuse to change direction on sticky rubber: These things no longer matter. The only question is are you brave enough to find the limit, and good enough to keep it there?

When you add soaking conditions to a tight and technical track like the Sachsenring, the truth of this axiom becomes even more obvious. With no straights to speak of, and with the bikes spending much of their time heeled hard over through an intricate set of turns, racing motorcycles here in the rain truly becomes a question of exploring the outermost limits of adhesion. There is nothing left to fall back on, no more odds stacked in anyone's favor, it comes down solely to the rider, and what they are capable of.

Here Comes The Rain Again

So despite the truly miserable conditions which greeted the MotoGP riders as they headed out for the sighting lap, there were a few happy faces among the riders and teams at the back of the grid at the Sachsenring on Sunday afternoon. The rain had been threatening to arrive all weekend, and after a brief downpour which disrupted Saturday morning's free practice session, then another shower during the warm up on Sunday morning, it finally started in earnest after the 125 race finished and as the 250 race got underway.

But the rain did not please everyone. The wet conditions left many teams worrying about a wet setup. Most of the riders, including Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi, had sat out the first half of Saturday's wet session, waiting for the track to dry. Then there were the riders who just don't get on with the rain, riders such as Jorge Lorenzo. As fast as they are, the wet weather makes them tentative, and tentative means slow.

Finally, there were the tire men. Surprisingly, there has never been a proper, full wet race at the Sachsenring before, and so the men from both Michelin and Bridgestone were having to second guess themselves for tire choices. With so many left turns, too soft a compound would mean that tires not lasting the whole race, especially if a dry line started to form. The flip side of that coin was that too hard a tire would not retain enough heat in the right side of the tire, with so few right handers to cope with.

In the end, Michelin decided to play it safe, only providing their riders with a medium compound wet tire, hard enough to last the entire race, whilst Bridgestone gambled a little, supplying a mixed compound tire with a harder left and a softer right side. But if the rain eased up, a dry line started to form, the race would be up in the air once again.

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