Italian tyre manufacturer Pirelli made its MotoGP debut in a private one-day test at Misano after last week’s San Marino Grand Prix.
And while Pirelli has so far been limited in what it is able to say publicly thanks to the series’ current deal with control tyre supplier Michelin, The Race has heard some early indications of what can be expected when Pirelli takes over from Michelin in 2027.
The single-day outing at Misano involved five test riders, one from each of MotoGP’s factories, on perhaps one of the most important days for the future of the series as engineers got their first chance to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the new tyres, and the balance of performance between the front and rear (something that swung dramatically when the last change, from Bridgestone to Michelin, took place in 2016).
“We are speculating about the tyres,” Aprilia Racing head of vehicle design Marco de Luca said ahead of the test. “We haven’t had the opportunity to compute the model of the new tyre - it can be a completely different bike in terms of balance.
“Balance normally is what impacts the most in terms of the design of the bike. It’s not just grip. We hope that they’re similar.
“There won’t be many tests with these tyres, so hopefully on Wednesday we’ll know something more about them.”
From what The Race understands, however, the initial feedback should be music to De Luca’s ears, with test riders reporting that the Pirellis are performing similarly enough to the current tyres to not require a substantial redesign project for him and his fellow engineers.
In fact, it seems that despite using current MotoGP machines designed specifically for Michelin, test riders were able to set roughly similar times on the new Pirelli tyres to what they had managed earlier in the week during open testing on the current race rubber.
The five riders taking part were Augusto Fernandez for Yamaha, Dani Pedrosa for KTM, Takaaki Nakagami for Honda, Lorenzo Savadori for Aprilia and Michele Pirro for Ducati, with all but one manufacturer using their current generation of MotoGP machine, albeit with the rear ride height devices (set to be banned from 2027) disabled.
However, according to The Race’s sources, one factory electronically limited its machine by 40-50 horsepower to better simulate the new 850c engines also set to be introduced in 2027.
The five riders used seven sets of tyres, with a choice of two front and three rear compounds, and completed both a sprint race simulation as well as a time attack.
"The Misano test was the first step in our return to the world championship," said Pirelli’s motorcycle racing director Giorgio Barbier in a press release issued after the test, "and we are very satisfied with both the excellent working relationship that has been struck up between our engineers and all the teams and riders of the test teams and the tyre performance.
"The test took place according to the run plan, which also included a sprint race simulation, and the first feedback received is very encouraging – this test has generated a lot of data to be analysed in order to continue our development work of Pirelli MotoGP tyres.
"The most appreciated features are definitely grip, warm-up speed and confidence."
