until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
The war of words between Honda’s MotoGP riders and tyre supplier Michelin that began in Indonesia has continued in Argentina, after both Pol Espargaro and Alex Marquez responded to comments from Michelin boss Piero Taramasso made a fortnight ago.
The row broke out at the new Mandalika Bay circuit when Michelin brought a new specification of rear tyre for the race, utilising a harder construction it had discontinued in 2018 in an attempt to cope with the extremely high temperatures experienced during the official three-day pre-season test at the track a month prior to the circuit’s inaugural race.
That specification changed the characteristics of the tyre by dramatically reducing rear grip, and resulted in Honda and Suzuki falling from pre-race favourites based on their performance in the test to the back of the grid, with riders from both saying after a crash-strewn qualifying they were not sure they would even be able to complete the race.
This was not an issue in the end, as heavy rain meant wet tyres were used in the race, but six-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez suffered considerable injuries when he had a violent highside fall – his fourth crash of the weekend – in Sunday’s warm-up session and is not racing in Argentina.
Taramasso played down the concerns when speaking to the media after the race, saying that reigning world champion Fabio Quartararo showed there was no issue with the new tyre in qualifying by matching Espargaro’s record testing time, while he suggested the Honda rider thought Michelin had brought tyres that were actually four years old rather than using a four-year-old construction.
Those comments triggered fresh responses from Espargaro and Alex Marquez, though, with the LCR Honda rider adamant that Michelin needed to find a better solution to similar problems going forward.
“It’s something that they need to improve for the future, and something that can’t happen again, to change suddenly the tyre allocation after three days of testing,” said Marquez.
“We saw after the test that the tyre could not do 27 laps of the race, but to change it to a [specification of] tyre that wasn’t used for three years…if they can’t handle 27 laps, make the race shorter or have a flag-to-flag.
“I think to change the allocation isn’t really fair, and not because we had a lot of problems.
“Maybe this will happen again in another track and for us it will be incredible, fun and good, and not for another factory. But to be fair it needs to try and always be the same ones, or to try and find another solution.
“The answer from Michelin is just to have a good image for them, but this is a business thing, wanting to have a good image.
“It’s something that they need to see the problems with though, that it’s not just the problem or the fault of the team. They need to see their problems and improve.”
The need for Michelin to address its own issues was also put forward by Espargaro, who insisted that while he was not angry at Michelin, it needed to understand that not everything is the fault of the teams when problems arise.
“When I have problems with my bike, I complain to Honda and to the press,” he explained. “Honda takes the blame and we try to improve and to be better together.
“When I struggle and I’m not good enough, Honda complains about me and they can fire me. That’s part of the job. Sometimes you are good and sometimes you are bad, sometimes you make the correct decision and sometimes you don’t.
“But in certain parts of this job and certain people in this paddock you cannot blame them. It’s not bad to say, ‘OK we made a mistake’, or, ‘Maybe this wasn’t good for you guys’.
“This can happen, it’s not a problem, but sometimes it seems it’s difficult to [say] this. It’s clear that we were the fastest in the test – I still have the record of the track!
“There was just one change during the weekend and it was this one. There’s no blame on this, just the reality. Sometimes we fail, sometimes they fail, but this is racing and it happens.”
