The 'stupid' decision that changed MotoGP's Japanese GP
MotoGP riders and teams made a mistake not to sample the hard rear tyre until Sunday at the Japanese Grand Prix - as it proved to be "incredible" and the best choice for performance.
Due to the uncertain levels of wear at a resurfaced Motegi, Michelin brought three rear tyre options to Japan instead of two. In addition to the soft and medium with a standard-construction casing, it introduced as a back-up a reinforced-casing hard rear tyre (though the compound itself isn't believed to be harder).
This was wildly unfancied to begin the weekend. The harder-construction tyre has had a significant influence on the competitive order at other circuits, and has never been hugely popular in terms of the grip it offered - so a few riders were immediately flat out on Thursday about hoping to avoid the hard tyre here.
"Usually when we have the standard casing, we always prefer the standard casing," said Luca Marini. "Our normal tyres are much nicer to ride," said Brad Binder. "F**k me! It's not an option. If we're using that tyre, I'd pack up and go home," said Jack Miller.
This was clearly reflective of the wider feeling up and down pitlane, because not a single rider used the hard rear for a single lap across Friday and Saturday.
This only changed in the extended Sunday warm-up, and only because Michelin withdrew the soft rear from the allocation due to excessive blistering in the sprint and recommended - though didn't force - the use of the hard rear.
Nineteen riders of 22 set their fastest time in warm-up on the hard tyre instead of the medium, and every single rider chose it for the main race. In it, eventual winner Marc Marquez was one second quicker at the 12-lap mark than he had been at the conclusion of the 12-lap sprint.
"For me, to be honest, I think we were a bit stupid to not consider this tyre [earlier]," laughed Fabio Quartararo after the finish.
"I think for the time attack, especially for us, would have been even better."
He said there was reduced pumping - tyre oscillation/deformation - from the tyre and so Yamaha could have used more power.
"Was funny because nobody used it, and at the end it was the best tyre. A bit crazy."
"In the morning we were joking a little bit - 'if the hard is working now, we don't understand anything about bikes'," said Alex Marquez.
"But it's true that here the strategy changed a little bit from Michelin. Normally when they give the hard casing it's with the hardest compound. This weekend it was with the soft[er compound]."
Marini said the Michelin technicians attached to teams didn't "push" enough to get riders to try the tyre, and suggested the tyre supplier itself was surprised.
"Fantastic. Unbelievable," he raved of the tyre. "We still don't understand why, maybe Michelin neither.
"If they pushed more to try it on Friday, it would have also been the tyre for the qualifying and for the sprint race. Something to investigate for them, eh?
"In my opinion, they produced a fantastic tyre for this track - I was complaining all weekend of grip and this morning I put this hard rear, the grip was unbelievable, all the problems on the bike were fixed, everything was working well."
Marini said the harder construction has "never worked as well as here".
And he acknowledged too that not trying it was also an oversight on his and his team's side.
"Maybe for me, that I crashed in practice, could've been an opportunity to try [instead of running the medium again].
"Maybe there for the future we need to be clever, to try everything.
"This, for the next year [with Pirelli], that we will have three specs every time is something to take into consideration, obviously."
