It’s confusing at the start of the 2022 MotoGP season. In the first three races, nine different riders have filled nine spots on the podium.
In Texas, we have our first repeat winner in Enea Bastianini, and Alex Rins repeats his podium from Argentina, while Jack Miller becomes the tenth rider to stand on the podium in four races.
In a sense, the 2022 season is starting when 2021 has ended. In 2021, MotoGP has eight different winners in 18 races and 15 different riders on the podium.
The 2020 season before it had nine winners and 15 different drivers on the podium from just 14 races, the season was dramatically shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Much of that shift can certainly be attributed to the absence of Marc Marquez as a competitive factor.
The eight-time world champion missed all of 2020 and only really starts to pick up pace towards the end of 2021. Without Marquez consistently up front, there’s more room for others on the podium.
However, that only explains part of the huge variation in riders. A much larger role is played by the sheer depth of the machines competing on the network.
Aleix Espargaro’s win in Argentina means that all six MotoGP manufacturers have now won one Grand Prix, and each driver in the 2022 grid has won at least one race in the Grand prix.
Of the 24 bikes on the grid, only 4 are not factory-made, 2022 machines. Even the level of the teams and mechanics has never been higher in top motorcycle racing.
In a tight field, even the smallest differences make a difference. The right setup, operating as close as possible to the middle of a Michelin tire’s performance window, can be the difference between victory and despair.
Comparing the 2018 and 2021 seasons, the Top 10 are three seconds closer on average than they were three years ago. In 2018, 21.9 seconds was in the top 10; in 2021, this number has been cut to 18.7 seconds.
What happened in the past three years? Two major developments have put stress on tires in a completely different way. Firstly, the aerodynamic packages are increasingly improved and the front wheel upgrades are very different.
And second, the addition of ride height gauges, which lower the rear (and now the front) of the bike at corner exit, has increased the pressure exerted on the rear tyres.
At Circuit of The Americas, on Sunday night after the race, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing driver Miguel Oliveira gave his perception of how the series has changed and why it has resulted in unpredictable.
“This season is like that, one weekend can be good, the other weekend you have to struggle,” the Portuguese driver told us. “I think that will become more normal in this era of MotoGP cycling. I think the door to work and good performance is too short and narrow.”
Although Oliveira claims to be no expert on the technical side of racing, he does take a concrete look at the cause.
“From my point of view, I think aerodynamics has something to do with it, because we accelerate so much faster, we brake more. And so somehow the pressure you’re putting on the tires makes them much more sensitive to working temperature and pressure, and this is important to be competitive and fast. “
Aerodynamics is not the only area that is growing rapidly. Ducati has introduced a modified form of the rear hole-cap, allowing it to be used in racing in late 2019.
By mid-2021, every manufacturer on the grid is using them, with Ducati, Aprilia, KTM and Honda all having systems that automatically activate, lowering the rear of the car when cornering.
Oliveira points out that this is another factor in the load changes in the tyres. “I think in the 2020 season we are starting to see some people at Ducati starting to use the ride height gauges, and that somehow affects the acceleration and braking dynamics a lot. of the car,” said the KTM factory racer.
“So the pitch is more, that you generate acceleration and braking. Plus the aerodynamics, all the loads you have, we’re going faster, so of course we’re using more tires, and so when we use more tires, it makes the windows, the operating range is quite narrow, I feel. ”
An undesirable side effect of the altimeter while riding is causing the bike to slope more heavily when braking. With the rear lower in a straight line and the height gauge only releasing when braking is initiated, the rear of the bike has to travel further, causing more weight when braking.
Oliveira believes this is one of the main reasons Ducati has introduced a front-stroke height gauge, which lowers the front end of the bike when cornering. By keeping the bike level, it will brake less.
“I think for that reason, Ducati with the front stroke height gauge, they try to avoid the throw,” Oliveira told us.
“Because the bike is going from a lower position to a higher position, and when you brake at bike level, your balance and weight distribution will remain the same, but you will only get lower. . So I think what we’re doing now is going from the low rear of the bike and back. ”
Vehicle height gauges also change the way aerodynamics work. Lowering the rear of the bike changed the angle of attack of the wings, which changed their effect and changed the way the aerodynamics worked.
“Of course that also affects the aerodynamics, because the wings have different degrees when we descend and when we brake,” reflected Oliveira, before conceding defeat at the complication. “Of course it’s complicated. I know nothing about it, so! ”
The aerodynamics and ride height add two new dimensions to the dynamics of a MotoGP bike. With two new variables to consider, the setup becomes even more complicated. And that complexity makes it easier to wander outside of Michelin’s narrow performance window.
Especially when the ride height gauge is being used at some angles and not others, varying the load on the tires in some braking zones, but not others. The ride height gauges made for something of a moving target in terms of setup, despite the fact that it offered a clear advantage in terms of acceleration.
All these changes also led the Michelin development program to pursue a moving target, as tire loads and stresses have changed dramatically over the past few years.
The French tire maker is working on a new, stiffer front tire for more support, but the combination of a lack of testing during the pandemic and the shifting dynamics of MotoGP bikes has causing its introduction to be pushed back until 2024.
“It’s basically delayed, because we’re working on improving temperature and pressure control,” Piero Taramasso, Michelin two-wheeled motorsport manager, told me at the test. experience in Sepang. “Now when you have the slide, the tendency of the front tires is to overheat. So we’re working on that, to try to control that point better.”
Taramasso admits that the aerodynamics and ride height make Michelin’s job more complicated. “Over the last two seasons we’ve realized that the bikes are changing, they’re putting more and more weight on the front, with small wings, and the riders are braking a lot. So the load is changing, so we have to change the development to accommodate that as well.”
To make things more challenging on the front tyres, Brembo introduced a 355mm front brake disc to use on some of the more difficult brake circuits. This puts even more load on the front tires, further complicating setup.
MotoGP may be the pinnacle of two-wheeler racing, but that comes with challenges. As the field tightens and the technology tightens the operating window of Michelin tyres, setup becomes more important than ever for success.
More and more rewards for getting the right setup, and because of the importance of qualifying, less and less time is spent on pure race setup.
That, perhaps, explains why the sector has been so erratic. With teams and riders chasing a moving target, there will be some weekends where a particular racer or team hits that target and other weekends it doesn’t.
Consistency is increasingly hard to find. And in the end, it is consistency that will bring the championship.
Photo: © 2022 Philip Platzer / KTM – All rights reserved
