Bridgestone to reconsider Laguna tyre selection
Added on Friday, July 10th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Bridgestone to reconsider Laguna tyre selection
Bridgestone are considering the introduction of asymmetrical to next year’s US Grand Prix after crashes from Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner led to criticism of the single-compound arrangement at Laguna Seca.
New MotoGP tyre regulations came under criticism following Sunday’s US Grand Prix after crashes to Lorenzo and Stoner in qualifying led to calls for the reintroduction of dual compound tyres, not used at the weekend as part of the newly introduced one tyre rule.
But Bridgestone, the sole suppliers of tyres in MotoGP, have admitted that whilst their predictions over the conditions in California were correct, they would consider changing their strategy for next season’s Grand Prix.
“The temperature data we collected from last year’s race allowed us to predict that the temperature differential between the left and right shoulders would be only a few degrees Celsius, and we based our tyre compound selection for the weekend on this data,” said Motorcycle Race Tyre Development Manager Tohru Ubukata.
“This year’s tyres are designed with a much wider temperature operating range than last year’s so we chose to bring the single compound to Laguna because we believed they would be suitable for the conditions. Our temperature prediction was correct, and the difference between the shoulders of the rear tyres was very similar to that experienced in Mugello and Assen, where we also used single compound tyres.
“I support our tyre choice this weekend, but of course as part of our continual development process we will carefully analyse all our data from the weekend and consider asymmetric tyres for Laguna next year,” he added.
Tyre temperature was attributed to the Stoner and Lorenzo falls, with Laguna one of the shorter circuits on the MotoGP calendar. The bias towards left hand turns, with eight of the circuit’s eleven turns being left handers and the hilly nature of the circuit were also factors according to Ubukata.
“Tyres naturally generate peak grip when they are properly loaded, but in turns three and ten in particular it was harder for the riders to load their rear tyres because the corners are downhill, meaning the weight transfer is towards the front of the bike and away from the rear tyre, giving less rear grip,” he claimed. “There are fewer right-handed corners at Laguna which meant that the right shoulder of each tyre was not used as much throughout the lap. The right shoulder also cooled between right-handers, especially as the ambient temperature was relatively low.”
