Major new electronics feature to debut at Austrian MotoGP

A significant new electronic feature will debut at this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, with the latest MotoGP ECU update introducing ‘Stability Control’.

While traction control, which manages torque by monitoring wheelspin, has been in place since the unified ECU software was introduced in 2016, it will now be joined by stability control, also known as slide control.

This more advanced system measures additional parameters such as the degree of sideways movement relative to forward momentum, and lean angle, before deciding whether to reduce torque.

One of traction control’s limitations has been correctly managing wheelspin at high lean angles. 

That can not only mean failing to reduce wheelspin sufficiently, but also the opposite issue: Cutting torque when a rider needs wheelspin to maintain a fast but controlled slide.

Both scenarios can result in a highside.

The introduction of Stability Control in MotoGP has been discussed for years, including after Pol Espargaro’s huge highside at Valencia in 2021, which ruled him out of the rest of the weekend.

“With the current electronics, the manufacturers are just able to tune one kind of spin, which is the centre spin,” Espargaro explained at the time.

“When you pick up the bike, there is a spin, and the TC [traction control] is controlling this spin. But then we have another [kind of] slide, it’s the side slide [when the bike is also leaned over].

“There is no function [to control it]. We are not allowed to use a function that has been used in the past, that the street bikes use.

“This is something that the manufacturers and the riders need to push to [be added to] the new rules for next year. To introduce this setting that we are working with already on the street bikes.”

Jack Miller added at the time: “That side spin issue has been there for years.

“The bike thinks you have the right amount of spin level for how fast you are going. But what it doesn’t work out is how sideways the bike is at that point.

“And it says ‘okay that’s too much spinning’, sort of shuts the gas on you immediately and that’s the worst thing you can possibly do in a big slide like that.”

MotoGP.com reports that “most if not all teams are expected to use” the new ECU update, featuring stability control, in Austria this weekend.

“MotoGP is committed to increasing the safety of the sport,” the report continued. 

“Development on the stability control system began in order to take another step forward in that mission, as it further decreases the likelihood of highside crashes.

“Thanks to the extensive collaboration between MotoGP, ECU supplier Marelli and the MSMA - the manufacturers’ association - the system can now make its debut this weekend.”