After a cool, wet and breezy race weekend in the heart of the UK, the intense championship battle continues in Austria for Michelin’s MotoGP partners. The Spielberg round, which marks the halfway point of the championship (10th race weekend out of 20), will take place on the Red Bull Ring. Reputed to be one of the most demanding circuits on the calendar, 4.318 km long and built in a very beautiful natural environment, the track was subject to modifications between the 2021 and 2022 races. The result was that the maximum speed of the bikes was reduced somewhat at turn 2, and a fast chicane was added. This configuration that the riders will race again this year, comprises three left and seven right turns. Considering the complexity created by the three straights, both uphill and downhill corners (the circuit has 65m of elevation change), Michelin Motorsport decided to bring rear tyres with a reinforced construction to cope with these conditions in Austria.
“It's an atypical circuit, with specific tyres,” says Piero Taramasso, manager of two-wheel competition at Michelin. "The Red Bull Ring presents particular challenges which are likely to place unusual demands on our tyres. Here, the three straights generate significant longitudinal forces when accelerating and braking, and this combined with the corners, especially the right-handers, creates thermal challenges that we must anticipate. For this reason we have chosen to manufacture tyres with a higher resistance casing for the rear, and to equip them with a reinforced rubber compound on the right side – to cope with the greater number of turns in this direction. Nothing changes, however, regarding the range of available compounds. At the front, the three compounds – Soft, Medium and Hard – will be symmetrical, while the Soft and Medium rears will be asymmetrical."
"If rain was to make an appearance, which cannot be ruled out, our MICHELIN Power Rain tyres will of course be available to the riders. With this tyre allocation, we will enable our partners to engage in battle without performance limits, and in complete safety, whatever the conditions."
In 2022, when the weather was dry and the track was at a good temperature, it was Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) who won the Grand Prix, ahead of Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) and Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team).
With this favourable weather, the current records were all set in 2022. Enea Bastianini (Gresini Racing MotoGP) set the all-time circuit lap record of 1min28s772; Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) holds the fastest race lap time of 1min29s854; while the 2022 Grand Prix was also the shortest, in 42min14s886.
This year the format of the race weekend will be the one seen at Silverstone two weeks ago. The first practice session on Friday morning, lasting 45 minutes, no longer counts for qualifying and takes the name of Free Practice 1. The second practice session, on Friday afternoon and this time lasting one hour, is simply called Practice, and allows the 10 fastest riders to progress directly to Q2. The format for Saturday and Sunday does not change, with a Free Practice session on Saturday morning followed by the two qualifying sessions (Q1 and Q2), with the Tissot Sprint Race on Saturday afternoon. While the Grand Prix takes place on Sunday.
Sixth round of the FIM ENEL MotoE™ World Championship
The Red Bull Ring circuit welcomes the electric motorcycles of the FIM ENEL MotoE World Championship for the third consecutive year. The new machines supplied by Ducati, which made their debut at the start of the 2023 season, will therefore be discovering the track for the first time. Rounds 11 and 12 (out of 16) of the championship will undoubtedly allow these more efficient machines, as on the other circuits already visited by the 2023 championship, to beat the records previously established. These new generation electric motorcycles are all equipped with Michelin tyres containing 52% sustainable materials at the rear, and 34% at the front. Michelin considers 'sustainable' materials to be bio-sourced or recycled materials that are neutral for the environment. Like all the championships in which it is involved, Michelin uses MotoE as a test laboratory for its future technologies. The objective is to be able to partially or fully integrate them into the next generations of competition or commercial tyres, and this will allow Michelin to develop increasingly durable tyres for everyone.
In MotoE, practice and qualifying – two sessions of each – will take place on Friday, and the two races on Saturday – one at lunchtime, and the other in the middle of the afternoon, following the MotoGP Sprint race.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario