2006 MotoGP Championship - Round 15 - Motegi, Japan - September 22/23/24

Michelin Preview

A week after celebrating Michelin’s 350th premier-class bike Grand Prix victory in Australia the Michelin MotoGP crew readies itself for the Japanese GP, another vital event for the French tyre company’s four World Championship hopefuls.

Michelin men Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda Team RC211V-Michelin), Valentino Rossi (Camel Yamaha Team YZRM1- Michelin), Marco Melandri (Fortuna Honda RC211V-Michelin) and Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team RC211VMichelin) currently hold the top four positions in the points chase, having won all but two of 14 races so far this year.

All 17 rounds of the MotoGP World Championship are important to this quartet of riders but Motegi is an extra special event for Michelin because Japan is the epicentre of the global motorcycle industry and also home to Michelin’s MotoGP partners, Honda and Yamaha. Victory there wins 25 points just like every other GP, but there’s a distinctive taste to Grand Prix success in Japan.

Motegi was opened in 1998 and hosted its first bike GP the following year. The venue was christended Twin Ring Motegi because it features a traditional racetrack, used for MotoGP and other car and bike events, plus an IndyCar oval. The circuit layout is very ‘stop and go’, dominated by in-and-out corners which place the emphasis on how riders enter and exit corners, rather on how they get through them.

MICHELIN’S RESPONSE TO THE CHALLENGE OF MOTEGI
“Motegi is a peculiar track,” says Nicolas Goubert, Michelin’s director of motorcycle racing.

“Traction is very important because there are many low-gear corner exits. I think engine power is also important for the same reasons, because although there aren’t any long straights you need good acceleration out of all the slow-speed corners. It is a big challenge for us because we don’t test there very often and it is the home race for one of our competitors.”

“The circuit isn’t very hard on tyres and edge grip isn’t that important because all the corners are pretty tight and short, there are no really long corners where the bike is on the edge of the tyres for a long time. We think our 2006 rear will help here but maybe not as much as at most other tracks because the tyre is more about increasing tyre footprint at more extreme lean angles.

“Finding grip for accelerating out of the corners is the big thing at Motegi. Last year we made some good improvements compared to our previous visit, we had better consistency. Last time there Max (Biaggi, Repsol Honda RC211V-Michelin) fought Loris (Capirossi, Ducati Marlboro Team Desmosedici) for the lead for more than half the race, so we will see what we can do this time.”

“The circuit does demand quite a lot from the front tyre because there is a lot of heavy braking into several tight corners, so you need a stronger-than-usual front construction, different to the construction we use at other tracks. But it’s only the centre of the tyre that gets stressed, because the turn-in time into these tight corners is very short the riders go very quickly from upright to full lean”.

“We will have to wait and see what the weather brings. September can be quite warm in Japan, just like it was at last year’s race, but there’s also the possibility of rain.”

MICHELIN IN JAPAN
The Japanese motorcycle market is huge and so is the Japanese motorcycle tyre market with around six millions bike tyres sold per annum in the country. The national biking scene is also very diverse, covering all kinds of powered two wheelers, from supersport bikes to scooters and from off-road bikes to super scooters. Michelin has one factory and an R&D centre in Japan, based in Ota City in the Gunma Prefecture. Nihon Michelin Tire Co., Ltd, established in 1975, employs about 1400 people.

MOTEGI DATA
Lap record: Loris Capirossi (Ducati Marlboro Team Desmosedici), 1m 47.968s, 160.081kp/h, 99.470mph
Pole position 2005: Loris Capirossi (Ducati Marlboro Team Desmosedici), 1m 46.363s
Recent winners at Motegi
2005 Loris Capirossi (Ducati Marlboro Team Desmosedici), 43m 30.499s
2004 Makoto Tamada (Camel Honda RC211V), 43m 43.220s
2003 Max Biaggi (Camel Honda Pons RC211V-Michelin), 43m 57.590s
2002 Alex Barros (West Honda Pons RC211V-Michelin), 44m 18.913s
2001 Valentino Rossi (Nastro Azzurro Honda NSR500-Michelin), 46m 32.600s
2000 Kenny Roberts (Telefonica Movistar Suzuki-Michelin), 46m 23.327s
1999 Kenny Roberts (Suzuki Grand Prix Team-Michelin), 51m 54.386s (wet race)

Michelin MotoGP tyre logistics
The secret behind the success of Michelin’s MotoGP tyres is their all-round performance potential. Logistics, however, are just as crucial in the quest for victory, particularly when races follow on from each other in quick succession. This year's calendar takes teams from Malaysia to Australia and finally on to Japan in the space of just three weeks!

Michelin provides tyres for a total of 18 MotoGP machines for 9 riders at each race of the 17-round World Championship. Since the beginning of the 2006 season, Michelin runners have claimed 9 pole positions and 12 wins from 14 races.

For the forthcoming visit to Asia and the Pacific Rim, Michelin's tyres were trucked to the airport in high security convoys. They were then loaded onto secure airfreight containers which left France on the Monday of the week preceding the Malaysian Grand Prix race week. Additional tyres will be flown directly to Australia and Japan. To facilitate stock management and movements, all tyres are identified by bar-codes. The freight containing the tyres
and equipment needed for the paddock amounts to between 7 and 8 tonnes. Used tyres are returned to Clermont-Ferrand after each race.

Michelin’s MotoGP crew totals 16 staff: the programme manager, five engineers, eight fitters, one press officer and one security guard to watch over the tyres at night.

Michelin takes around 1,000 tyres to each GP.
- Rear tyres (60 per cent).
- Front tyres (40 per cent). Front tyres are available in two profiles: 55 per cent are 'wide' profiles and 45 per cent are
'narrow' profiles.
- 30 qualifying tyres per race for all of Michelin riders.
- The number of rain tyres taken to each race fluctuates slightly as a function of the anticipated climate (slightly more
are taken to Phillip Island where the chances of rain are higher). Rain tyres account for around 10 per cent of the total package.

Michelin’s nine riders generally use between 200 and 300 tyres in the course of a GP weekend. The other 700 tyres allow Michelin to respond to all track and weather conditions.

MICHELIN MotoGP RIDERS 2006
Colin Edwards, Valentino Rossi (Camel Yamaha Team YZR-M1-Michelin)
Nicky Hayden, Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team RC211V-Michelin)
Toni Elias, Marco Melandri (Fortuna Honda RC211V-Michelin)
Casey Stoner (Honda LCR RC211V-Michelin)
Makoto Tamada (Konica Minolta Honda RC211V-Michelin)
Kenny Roberts Junior (Team Roberts KR211V-Michelin)