Peter Hickman heads to Spa for “completely blind” tyre testing: “It's all about feel”

Peter Hickman headed to Spa between BSB races in September for a six-hour endurance race with the Dunlop test team in what he describes as a “completely blind” experience of tyre testing.

Hickman was aboard a BMW S1000 RR that he described as a “stock-to-Superbike hybrid” when he spoke to Crash.net at the Donington BSB a week before the Spa race.

That Donington race was Hickman’s first one back after his Isle of Man TT crash that kept him out of action all summer, but he was nonetheless ready to team up with Jeremy Guarnoni for the Dunlop test team in Belgium a week later.

Despite the competitive aspect of the weekend in Belgium, Hickman explained that tyre testing isn’t about lap time at all, especially because he often doesn’t know the characteristics of the tyre he has fitted to the bike for a given stint (Dunlop says it took over 200 tyres to Spa, including slicks, treaded dry tyres, and wet weather tyres).

“They don't tell us anything about it so it's a completely blind test,” he said at Spa. 

“Often, the lap time on the bike is actually blanked off so we can't see it – from our perspective it's all about feel rather than lap time. 

“Every time I ride out of the pits, I know I need to get used to the tire and put in a fast lap time as quickly as I can, obviously without making a mistake! 

“We've just got to go out and ride as hard as we can and give our feedback at the end of it.”

Testing during a race has its own specific benefits as well, Hickman said, compared to riding alone.

“Testing in this environment is different to just testing on a normal track,” he began.

“It means that, when we are passing people, we're going off the racing line, trying different parts of the track that we wouldn't do if we're testing on our own. 

“We get to use the tire in a different way and in the type of realistic conditions it’s actually going to get used in.”

While from Hickman’s perspective the feeling he gets from the tyre is the most important information, for the Dunlop engineers the data his lapping provides is of equal value.

“While we rely on the riders for expert subjective feedback, we measure all the objective data from the garage,” said Giovanni Dalla Torre, one of Dunlop’s motorcycle racing tyre development engineers. 

“This split allows us to separate the facts from the feedback, both of which are vital to the development process. 

“Having top riders like Peter [Hickman] and Jeremy [Guarnoni] in the programme means they give us clear, experienced feedback that carries weight when we later introduce the new specifications to our customers and supported teams.”