Quote:
Originally Posted by flatbutt
There are several compounds available from which the riders may choose BUT factory bikes get 1 range while the open bikes get a different range. Typically the open bikes have access to a softer compound.
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It's complicated, but basically Bridgestone will bring either two, or three (at some tracks) choices for the front tires. All teams have the same choices for the front tires. The teams get either 9 or 10 fronts per weekend (depending on whether there are two or three selections) and can choose a maximum of 6 tires of any kind.
For the rears, there are three choices given to the teams at each race, out of roughly five choices that are available. Bridgestone decides which three of the five to bring to a race. They can be thought of as extra hard, hard, medium, soft and extra soft. The factory bikes get two choices and the option bikes get two choices. They differ in that the option bikes will get the same tire as the softest of the two offered to the factory bikes, plus a softer one. So, if the factory bikes are offered a hard and medium at a given race, the open bikes will get the medium and soft. They get 11 rear tires per event, 7 of the softer choice and 5 of the other.
Then, they have intermediates and full wets available, if it rains.
At some tracks, Bridgestone will make special tires, that have a softer compound on one side or the other. That is because certain tracks work one side of the tire harder than the other and the under-worked side tends to cool off too much during parts of the lap to be safe. The 'waterfall" corner at the Sachsenring is one such problem, in that it is a downhill, off-camber right hand turn taken at half throttle and fairly high speed, after a series of left hand turns. Lots of crashes there...
Then you have tracks like Laguna Seca, that are cool in the morning and hot in the afternoon. In years past, there have been races where the tires brought for the weekend simply wouldn't work in the first practice each day, which is generally held around 9:00. Back when there were still two tire companies in MotoGP, Michelin brought a selection that simply weren't safe. They also screwed up at Indianapolis about 10 years ago in F1, and wouldn't let the teams compete in the race with their tires.
Next year, MotoGP will be supplied by Michelin, instead of Bridgestone. They've been developing their tires for a while now and have contracted with Colin Edwards to test them. There have been a few group tests where other riders have tested them and thus far, the results have been less than 100% positive. They are different from the Bridgestones and have been tricky, especially the fronts. More than a few crashes. There will be a significant impact on the design of the 2016 bikes to suit the new tires. Next year could be fairly unpredictable.
JR