MOTOGP » MotoGP goes single tyre for 2009

I've always been against single tyre manufacturer rules in motorbike sport because it takes away an element of development.
Whoever gets the contract has little incentive to improve their tyres, obviously those who don't can't.

Michelin's utter failure this year combined with their historic dominance has skewed this and last year's results but that's just a blip in the graph.

Providing less sticky rubber can hardly improve safety, that's a no brainer.

What with the 600cc's being single engine make this is getting over regulated. We're gonna have more rules and restrictions than F1 soon. Who's running all this, Bernie Ecclestone? The whole sport is becoming stitched up like a kipper.

Mark S,

If Metzeler make an entry, I would give a vote for them become the control tyre. Mich, BStone, Dunlop and Pirelli will have an entry each. Metzeler need to be given a chance to have massive development inputs from motogp riders.

With involvement of traction control in 4-stroke motogp, multi-compound needs become lesser. It may limits to either harder or softer compound only.

As Metzler and Pirelli are one and the same they have plenty of input from various control tyre based championships already...

Dunlop don't want it (logistic nightmare to supply all three classes)

"Providing less sticky rubber can hardly improve safety, that's a no brainer"... err wrong, it just changes the limits and it's not about how sticky a tyre is, it's about how it stops sticking that defines how safe it is (progressive slide, or sudden complete lack of traction)

I dont think the tire rule is going to change very much for next year to be honest. Repsol Honda have stated that both riders will be on "the same tire" next year - which will be the stones. I recon the same will happen at Fiat Yamaha. Both Suzukis and all three Kawasakis will be on stones. I couldn't see ducati changing tire (even though that was thrown about a couple of days back). So who would that leave on Michelins? Tech 3 and some satalite Hondas. What chance have they got?
I moaned my head off when WSBK went to one tire and when they said it was going to Pirelli I almost died but Ive never watched a race and thought "this is great but we need more tires" or in 125s and 250s.

"good! now we got that sorted let's vote for a single bike competition too! now that will reduce costs dramatically and improves our chances to evaluate riders even better. i guess it will add to safety too, on the same grounds that having a single tire brand would do (does anyone get the reasoning behind that?)"

The only comment worth reading. Put everyone on a honda with bridgestones, Is that the even playing field your all looking for. So much for competition!

Quote = Al ""Providing less sticky rubber can hardly improve safety"... err wrong, it just changes the limits and it's not about how sticky a tyre is, it's about how it stops sticking that defines how safe it is (progressive slide, or sudden complete lack of traction)"

Fair point but I still don't see how a one make tyre rule increases safety that way. Corner speed has increased largely due to the decrease in cc's to 800, the bigger bikes were more point and squirt, the 800's are more like the smaller classes. Why not increase the minimum weight to decrease corner speeds?

Are high corner speeds that much of a safety issue anyway? You could argue that traction control is the culprit.

Bomber - I agree with you, the bikes should be engineered to suit the tyres, but the michelins simply aren't as good as the bridestones. You can get a great bike on bad tyres to go as fast over a whole race as great bike on good tyres no matter how you engineer it! i.e check out michelin in qualifying and michelin in the races. As i mentioned, I do not believe it should be a one tyre series but it is possibly the best option for closer racing out of the ones suggested.

Hi Guys.
I''m working in motoGP... I was in BSB... Look what is BSB with tyre rule now !!! Nothing except a pale shadow of superbike world championship. Think about it. Who cares about BSB now?

This is a done deal, Bridgestone will get the contract even if they don't tender for it. Rossi's on Bridgestone he won't want to change back, so thats that.
What Rossi wants Rossi gets.
If its about slowing the riders down give it to Dunlop and if I were Michelin I'd tell Espeleta and Dorna to go **** themselves and take my business to WSBK. Michelin have supported 500's/Motogp before Dorna was even a twinkle and now they've been shafted for the sake of money. (Eurosport too).
WSBK is better than Motogp anyhow and next year will be even better.

"If it isn't broke, dont try to fix it. BridgeStone sucked for the longest time, now they're on top and they decide to go to a one tire rule. This is a prototype series. More rules means less fun for everyone. It is a shame that the tire war is coming to an end."


It's not that Bridgestone sucked, they were just on lesser teams with bikes that wouldn't be competetive regardless of which tires they were using. When Ducati switched to Bridgestone we were able to see what a good bike could do with those tires (as well as Tamada on the Yamaha in years past, it was a mistake for him to switch to Michelins).

If Michelin were on top of their game this wouldn't be happening. con'td...