Riders didn't want Argentina 'tyre test'
ByAutoSport
Published 14/04/2017 at 16:43 GMT
Honda MotoGP riders Marc Marquez and Cal Crutchlow still want to try Michelin's 2016-specification front tyre again, just not during a race weekend as was proposed for the Argentinian Grand Prix.
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
Based on rider feedback, led by Valentino Rossi who believes a revised profile makes the casing feel softer, Michelin brought a fourth front tyre to Argentina with the stiffer casing used at Valencia last November.
However, a general strike in Argentina prevented these reaching the track until Friday evening, by which point it was decided by riders not to use the rubber.
Riders were already asked to turn a minimum of five laps on the hardest of the rear tyres during Friday practice.
"Some guys have said [to Michelin], 'Can you bring something harder?', and I'm one of those guys," LCR satellite rider Crutchlow said.
"Eight guys said in [in Qatar] the front tyre was too soft.
"But they've brought it at the wrong race. We had a rear tyre we had to do five laps on, we had four front tyres, and in the end Friday was a complete tyre test.
"You get absolutely nothing done all day, that's the reason why the riders in the Safety Commission decided not to run it.
"It's good of Michelin to be able to bring it, and good of them to react fast to some comments, I have to give them credit for that because it's not easy.
"Maybe it wasn't feasible to use it here."
World champion Marquez clarified that riders had agreed not to use more than three types of a front or rear tyre in a GP weekend in 2017, and that there was no requirement on safety grounds to introduce a fourth.
He feels a better opportunity to run the tyre would next month, in the post-Spanish Grand Prix test.
"We cannot have more [than three], or less," Marquez said.
"For some reason Michelin brings this extra tyre in the front, and then we speak a bit in the Safety Commission, why do we have this tyre.
"Even race direction didn't know, they didn't have any information. There was no need for safety to use this new tyre with a different character.
"For that reason it's better to try it in a proper test, after Jerez or something like this."
Marquez stressed that he remains keen to try the tyre on his 2017 Honda, as he believes it could be a good fit for his riding style, if it allows him to be stronger on the brakes and capitalise on the strength of the RC213V.
"Looking at the data, what they say to us, this new tyre that got cancelled could be better for my riding style because it's stronger, it can be better on the braking points," added Marquez.
"I want to try it. But the point is the time to change the tyre, and in the end we followed the rules."
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