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DESPAIN: My Take on SPEC Tires in MotoGP
Dave Despain tries to get a grip on the tire situation in MotoGp...
Amber Delgado  |  Posted November 04, 2007   Charlotte, NC
Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain on SPEED. (Image: SPEED)


By any measure, it has been a bizarre MotoGP season, reminding us that rulemaking is dodgy business, rife with unintended consequences. '07 MotoGP engines were downsized in the name of safety, but top speeds still approach 200 miles per hour, corner speed is way up and the racing suffered dramatically. Honda's expected superiority was a bad joke; counter to conventional wisdom, Ducati had the hot setup; and Valentino Rossi, perhaps the best rider ever, flailed around miserably while precocious Australian sophomore Casey Stoner cake-walked the championship.

What went wrong? Little to do with engines, it was all about tires. Long story short, Michelin got it wrong and Bridgestone got it right, the difference reflected in both race and championship margins of victory.

The amazing upshot? official as of Sunday afternoon, Rossi will get Bridgestones next year while his team remains on Michelin, and thus the series will not, as threatened, go to a one-brand spec tire rule similar to Formula One.

Personally, I think that's a mistake. Yes, competition among tire companies improves the breed; yes, I like the grip afforded by DOT race tires; and yes, I expect to be accused of knee-jerk reaction to one bad year. For the record, I said this same thing about NASCAR's tire war 13 years ago. Most series, including MotoGP, would be better off with spec tires.

The round black things are such a critical interface between machine and track that they can screw up an entire series for an entire season. I don't think the R&D gain is worth that, and I like the fact that when tire grip is equalized, man and machine superiority again determine the outcome.

You'll find supporting evidence in World Superbike, which adopted spec tires 4 years ago amid predictions that would sink the series. This year, while MotoGP suffered the worst consequences of tire warfare, World Superbike had 5 different winners, 6 factories involved and a great title fight...a good argument for spec tires. You who feel differently should sound off now, because that's just "My Take."
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Amber Delgado

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