2008 Moto GP tyre rule changes........?
Discussion
Dorna CEO admits the tyre rules may have to go....let`s hope so...
http://www.speedtv.com/articles/moto/motogp/39796/
http://www.speedtv.com/articles/moto/motogp/39796/
Edited by F.M on Wednesday 5th September 22:25
.. an interesting quote from Kevin Schwantz regarding electronics in the class....
"I think it's a pretty general consensus across the board amongst the riders that electronics are making it very difficult to find the opportunity, to create the ability or the opportunity to pass somebody. Everybody gets on the gas at about the same time, the electronics all work just about the same, and going off into the corner it's now just a push come to shove on the brakes. I think the racing would be better without electronics. Yeah, I think seeing bikes sideways—even a couple of years ago, back when they were still 1000s, the racing was better, I think. Electronics are definitely the way everything's headed, and if you use Formula One as the motorsports Mecca, the draw, the thing everybody looks at, that racing's gotten boring too. The only place they pass now is in the pits, and unfortunately for MotoGP, we don't do pit stops. The only time they do is when it goes from wet to dry, or dry to wet. My opinion is, electronics have really made the average guy be able to go out and go fast, and everybody qualifies really, really well, and I think that we're paying too much attention to that.
When I rode 500s, the front row was typically a second. The second row was another second. If you were on the third row, we considered ourselves on the barbecue row, because that may as well be where we were, at home having a barbecue, because we'd never stand a chance from the third row. But seeing everybody, all 20 bikes within less than a second or a second and a half in qualifying, hasn't made the racing any better. We need to go back to letting these guys really ride these things, and wrestle these things around. The one thing it's going to do is, it's going to make it a whole lot less forgiving of a sport. You're going to start seeing more banged-up riders walking around.
Why? Because of all the power that the modern-day equipment has. With 250 horsepower, I doubt anybody would ever use all the power. You'd end up pulling plug wires, you'd end up doing something that wasn't proper traction control. When those things decide to snap sideways and spit you off, it's going to be a pretty hairy ride.
Q. Not taking anything away from MotoGP at all—at all—but there's still something missing in the way that a 500 went into the corner, in the middle of the corner, and exited the corner, the combination of finesse going in and complete brutality coming out. Your thoughts?
A. I think you'd start to see that finesse ... I think we're starting to see it a little bit more getting in, and to the middle. But getting rid of the electronics is what I think would be the fix. A smaller displacement, 800cc bikes, taking all the electronics away, you're not going to have all that saving grace helping you getting out. You're going to have to get in, you're going to have to pick that throttle up as soon as you can, you're going to have to start trying to finesse the thing out. Whereas now it's just kind of grab it and do what you want, hang on. But I think the electronics would bring a little bit of that mystique back that there used to be in 500cc Grand Prix racing.
http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2007/Aug/070815-34....
"I think it's a pretty general consensus across the board amongst the riders that electronics are making it very difficult to find the opportunity, to create the ability or the opportunity to pass somebody. Everybody gets on the gas at about the same time, the electronics all work just about the same, and going off into the corner it's now just a push come to shove on the brakes. I think the racing would be better without electronics. Yeah, I think seeing bikes sideways—even a couple of years ago, back when they were still 1000s, the racing was better, I think. Electronics are definitely the way everything's headed, and if you use Formula One as the motorsports Mecca, the draw, the thing everybody looks at, that racing's gotten boring too. The only place they pass now is in the pits, and unfortunately for MotoGP, we don't do pit stops. The only time they do is when it goes from wet to dry, or dry to wet. My opinion is, electronics have really made the average guy be able to go out and go fast, and everybody qualifies really, really well, and I think that we're paying too much attention to that.
When I rode 500s, the front row was typically a second. The second row was another second. If you were on the third row, we considered ourselves on the barbecue row, because that may as well be where we were, at home having a barbecue, because we'd never stand a chance from the third row. But seeing everybody, all 20 bikes within less than a second or a second and a half in qualifying, hasn't made the racing any better. We need to go back to letting these guys really ride these things, and wrestle these things around. The one thing it's going to do is, it's going to make it a whole lot less forgiving of a sport. You're going to start seeing more banged-up riders walking around.
Why? Because of all the power that the modern-day equipment has. With 250 horsepower, I doubt anybody would ever use all the power. You'd end up pulling plug wires, you'd end up doing something that wasn't proper traction control. When those things decide to snap sideways and spit you off, it's going to be a pretty hairy ride.
Q. Not taking anything away from MotoGP at all—at all—but there's still something missing in the way that a 500 went into the corner, in the middle of the corner, and exited the corner, the combination of finesse going in and complete brutality coming out. Your thoughts?
A. I think you'd start to see that finesse ... I think we're starting to see it a little bit more getting in, and to the middle. But getting rid of the electronics is what I think would be the fix. A smaller displacement, 800cc bikes, taking all the electronics away, you're not going to have all that saving grace helping you getting out. You're going to have to get in, you're going to have to pick that throttle up as soon as you can, you're going to have to start trying to finesse the thing out. Whereas now it's just kind of grab it and do what you want, hang on. But I think the electronics would bring a little bit of that mystique back that there used to be in 500cc Grand Prix racing.
http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2007/Aug/070815-34....
Edited by F.M on Thursday 6th September 21:28
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