Since last year’s British Grand Prix, MotoGP has required riders to maintain minimum front and rear tire pressures, which they say is for safety. However many riders didn’t like it because the minimum front tire pressure was too close to the limit, making it easy for the tire to become unstable.
For this year, Michelin, the tire supplier, agreed to lower the minimum front tire pressure to give riders more leeway. But at the recent Spanish Grand Prix, five riders got penalties for having tire pressures below the minimum for too long during the race.
One of those riders was Fabio Quartararo from Yamaha. He started the race from way back in 23rd place but managed to climb up to third. However, because of the penalty, he got moved down to fifth.
The race in Jerez had a lot of crashes because of wet spots on the track. Oliveira, a rider, thinks the tire pressure rule should only apply when the track is completely dry. He said this after the race in Spain.
He thinks that when the track is damp, like it was during the race, worrying about such a small difference in tire pressure doesn’t make much sense. But he understands that it’s the rule, and everyone has to follow it.
The rule about tire pressure doesn’t count if the race is fully wet or if it’s a flag-to-flag race, where riders can switch bikes if it starts to rain.
In the race at Jerez, the five riders who broke the tire pressure rule got eight-second penalties. Before this year, they would have been disqualified, but the penalty got changed just before the season started. Now, they get time penalties instead.
