New Michelin front tyre pressure ‘will make life easier’

It may only be changing by 0.08 bar, or 1.16 psi, but MotoGP riders have given the new lower Michelin front tyre pressure a ‘warm’ welcome.

After being required to spend at least 50% of last year’s Grand Prix laps above 1.88 bar, the limit has now been reduced to 1.80 bar for 2024, albeit over 60% of the laps. Sprints remain at 30%.

The change is aimed at avoiding some of the grip loss experienced when front tyre temperature rises behind other bikes, with pressures of over 2.1 bar said to have occurred during last season.

“For me, yes [it’s enough],” Marc Marquez said of the pressure drop. “It’s a small step, but a big step.

“It’s super difficult to control the pressure even if you are alone, or behind somebody. But in the end, if it's a safety issue, we need to adapt.

“Of course, if it's going super high pressure [you get a] lack of performance, but if you are going low, I feel lack of performance too.

“So in the end you need to work in the correct tyre pressure [range].”

Fellow former world champion Fabio Quartararo agreed: “I think it’s quite OK, I think like Marc said, when you go too high you miss performance and also on the low side.

“Of course there are some races like Thailand, basically places where it's really hot, when you play a lot with this front tyre [pressure] and I think 1.8 is quite good.”

Aleix Espargaro, another vocal critic of the penalties given out under the new real-time tyre pressure monitoring system introduced midway through last season, added:

“1.8 bar is not going to change the performance, but in terms of our life, it's going to be a lot easier,” said the Aprilia rider.

While a warning was given for a first offence last season followed by escalating time penalties, there has been no revised penalty system announced for 2024. The standard penalty for a technical infringement - disqualification - could therefore be enforced.

Update: A Thursday evening news story on MotoGP.com revealed: "The FIM MotoGP Stewards have also announced new, set [tyre pressure] penalties for 2024. For infringements in the Sprint it’s an eight-second time penalty, and for the Grand Prix race it’s 16 seconds."

• MotoGP ditch disqualification in tyre pressure rule-change