In the early stages of this MotoGP season, one aspect has become very evident: in almost every round, there has been a stronger performance from the bikes, reflected in race times and new lap records on the circuits.
Miguel Oliveira was asked about what he believes is behind these significant improvements and replied: ‘The tyres. The tyres help a little bit. I don’t want to say the bikes, because many of them have the same bike spec as the last year. But these tyres, although they have the same compound, the construction is a little bit different. It seems like maybe over a race distant is performing a bit better’.
Not knowing exactly what is different about the tyres, the Portuguese rider from Trackhouse Racing noted the fact that the races are faster: ‘I actually cannot say to you what it is because I don’t know what changes in the construction of the tyre. But we are seeing that every race gets faster and faster. I think Qatar, because obviously it was resurfaced quite recently and this year was much cleaner. Jerez was crazy fast, Barcelona was even faster with a low grip track. So I have to say the tyre is more than half of the reason for it’.
Do the tires somehow make the bikes easier to ride? Oliveira explained: ‘Easier no, but when you have grip you can perform better. I think that’s the main thing. The drop it’s not crazy high, the wear is actually the same, the predictions and everything we have. I cannot pinpoint to you what it is because I haven’t really focused on why we’re going faster. But I think also we are much more adapted to the style of the weekend. The bike also don’t change so much from last year to this year. Everyone is a little bit closer to the edge of the performance of everything. So maybe it’s that’.