Oliveira: I was careful about what I said on Sunday…

Miguel Oliveira talks Styrian MotoGP front tyre 'defect'; 'It is pretty clear after some photos were published that two pieces of rubber came out'
Miguel Oliveira , Styria MotoGP, 7 August 2021
Miguel Oliveira , Styria MotoGP, 7 August 2021
© Gold and Goose Photography

Other than confirming a front tyre 'defect', Miguel Oliveira gave few other details immediately after his retirement from last Sunday's Styrian MotoGP.

But with pictures emerging showing two large chunks of rubber missing from the centre of his tyre, plus Michelin's decision to replace the asymmetric hard front tyre with a symmetric hard tyre for this weekend's Red Bull Ring sequel, the KTM rider felt able to speak in more detail.

"I think I was quite polite and careful about what I said on Sunday," Oliveira said. "Now it is pretty clear after some photos were published that two pieces of rubber came out of the tyre.

"I don’t know the reason and for I am not the best one to be able to answer why this happened. The outcome is that they replaced the front tyre for another one. Hopefully this will be safe and also performing for us.

"That’s basically it. It was not a failure caused by the team, meaning that temperatures and pressures were inside the margin that Michelin recommended. It was not a riding mistake due to push too much too early. The [quick] conclusion seems to be a tyre defect. That’s what I think."

Front tyre performance has been an issue for KTM for much of this season, after their favoured option was removed from the 2021 allocation and replaced with the asymmetric, which the KTM riders feel is too soft.

"The story is that Michelin replaced a hard front tyre that was between a medium and a hard," Oliveira said. "So they tried to replace this tyre with an asymmetric but this tyre does not work from the first day we have tried it. Not only our comments, but other riders and manufacturers comments are that this tyre is hard to comprehend sometimes and it’s not giving the right feedback.

"Here in Spielberg it was already working OK. But, let’s say if we had another choice, we would not race with this tyre. This is something that we have been warning Michelin about since Portimao where this asymmetric option was the only one.

"What happened to me also happened to Iker Lecuona in Barcelona and he crashed. Since Barcelona our team also warned Michelin that on this track – which is one of the highest demanding on the front for temperature and pressure – it would be on the limit for us, but still they were not convinced [and believe] that this allocation that would work here correctly.

"And it did work. It did for Brad and Iker and it just didn’t for me. It is quite a thin area we are dealing with because Michelin is required to bring tyres that actually finished races and you can race on them and they are safe and can perform for all manufacturers. It is a thin line and it is not that black and white.

"For us the choice to go with the asymmetric front on tracks where we won in the past with the [previous] hard tyre is what leaves us a little bit sad and not really understanding why they have replaced it at tracks where we have won races last season.

"We feel that we were sacrificed a little bit for the rest of the grid and we were the ones that needed to adapt. To sum up the whole story, this is what is not too nice."

Meanwhile, Oliveira also has physical issues to deal with this weekend, with little time to rest his wrist injury from last Friday's practice highside.

"My wrist is better and I got rid of the cast since Tuesday because we don’t have much time to be in the cast and then rehabilitate," he said. "We’ve been spending this time trying to do physio. The best way is to try to move the fingers and do my normal life and hopefully this will be enough."

Oliveira, who took his first MotoGP victory for Tech3 in the second Austrian round last year, starts this weekend having slipped to seventh in the world championship, 87 points from Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha).

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