Michelin's delayed new front tyre intended to tackle the problems currently limiting wheel to wheel racing in MotoGP has now been officially killed off and will never be raced.
The new front tyre was designed to improve racing by better handling the pressure and temperature stresses of modern MotoGP bikes with their aerodynamics and ride height devices.
The bikes' development in these areas has outstripped what the existing tyres could handle, and with Michelin struggling to get agreement for enough testing time to adequately improve its products, a restrictive tyre pressure rule has been in place that riders must constantly monitor, which hampers racing in the latter stages of grands prix and frequently leads to riders getting severe post-race time penalties.
Development of the new front started in 2023 and was originally planned for a 2025 introduction, before teams' reluctance to devote enough testing time to it meant it was pushed back until 2026.
Now with Michelin being replaced by Pirelli in 2027, the tyre has been parked rather than being introduced for just a single season.
"After the last test in Aragon we had time to analyse all the results, and taking into account what will happen in the future, considering that we will leave MotoGP at the end of 2026, we decided not to introduce the new front," Michelin motorsport boss Piero Taramasso told media at the Dutch TT on Friday.
"We spoke with the riders, with the teams, with Dorna, and I think this is the best solution.
"We took the decision all together, because for one season we didn't think it was a good idea to introduce the new front."
Taramasso suggested a "light majority" of riders had pushed for the new tyre to be introduced but were ultimately overruled.
"It was not 100%," added Taramasso, "but I can say that a light majority liked it and found the right set-up for the bike, the right feeling.
"The others, it's not that they didn't like it. They saw the potential, they said that it felt better when you braked, that the stability was better, but they just didn't find the proper setting of the bikes.
"It's a completely new concept of tyre, and you have to change the bike a lot. Some found it straight away, and others did not."
The Race says
Frankly, this is a complete disaster for MotoGP fans, because it means that we're basically destined to end the Michelin era with yet another season of dull racing.
The hallmark of the current era has been that as soon as tyre pressure and temperature spikes a few laps into the race, all opportunity to overtake disappears. Races have become processional, as riders sit behind each other and manage their tyre pressure with no opportunity to overtake without risking far too much.
It's even more frustrating than ever before now, knowing that there's a solution to it sitting in a warehouse in Clermont-Ferrand that will never see the light of day - and it's an example of promoter Dorna losing sight of the whole purpose of the series.
At the end of the day, the point of MotoGP isn't to appease teams or even to set the fastest ever lap times, it's to entertain the millions of fans who tune in. No one has been entertained lately by the snoozefest races we've had inflicted upon us by tyre pressure rules, and another year of that should have been the last thing that Dorna wanted.
Yes, teams share some of the blame for this mess by refusing to adequately test Michelin's new front tyre in the past - but it's Dorna that has the ability to make sweeping rule changes to maintain the entertainment value of MotoGP, and, completely beholden to sponsors and engineers, it has spectacularly failed to do so here.
