The pressure of MotoGP tires has become a regularly discussed topic, especially this year with the introduction of rules that provide penalties if the minimum is not met. However, the issue is not new and has been talked about before, as Ramón Forcada now recounts.
The engineer spoke to Dennis Noyes’ YouTube channel and recalled a situation that occurred in 2020 during a victory of Franco Morbidelli with the former Petronas SRT – Yamaha’s satellite team:
– In the year of the pandemic, when we won a race with Morbidelli where the average was 1.89bar instead of 1.90. This, if there is no regulation, is perfect, because in the end you tried to go to 1.90 and as he won a race and led, it dropped to 1.89. Neither Michelin, nor Dorna, no one complained. And we asked. Everyone, from Michelin to our technician, told us it was perfect, hopefully everyone could always go at this pressure. Except the manufacturer, the manufacturer didn’t seem to like it.
Forcada then detailed Yamaha’s displeasure: ‘Their attitude was to throw me to the wolves. One of the tense meetings at Yamaha, the problem was that we finished and they would make the pressures and we wouldn’t do it anymore because we did it dirty, in quotes‘.
