The MotoGP™ World Championship heads to Italy this week for the first of a double-header at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, with MotoE™ making its return at the track.
The circuit follows the lead of the RedBull Ring in Austria and Circuito de Jerez in Spain in hosting back-to-back race action, firstly with the Gran Premio Lenovo di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini and then the debut running of the Gran Premio TISSOT dell’Emilia Romagna e della Riviera di Rimini.
Situated close to the shores of the Adriatic Sea, the 4,226m circuit boasts one of the most technical and intricate layouts of the season, with six left- and ten right-hand turns posing a variety of challenges for the riders, as well as their tyres.
As per normal, teams will be provided with a range of soft, normal and hard front slick tyres with a symmetric finish for the race weekend, but Michelin will also provide a fourth specification.
As the asphalt is newly resurfaced, a hard-asymmetric front slick, with a harder right-hand side, is being included in the MICHELIN Power slick range.
As for the rear tyres, the soft, medium and hard will all be asymmetric with a harder right shoulder given the greater number of turns in that direction, helping to counteract wear throughout the 27-lap-race.
Given the proclivity for rain at this fixture, MICHELIN Power Rain tyres will also be in the teams’ allocation over the weekends. Soft and medium symmetric fronts and medium rears, with the harder right side, are ready to be called upon should the riders feel the need to do so.
Michelin is also providing tyres for the FIM Enel MotoE™ World Cup races during both weekends. This will be the second racetrack that the new MICHELIN Slick MotoE tyres – featuring a redesigned rear slick composed of biomaterials and regenerated materials – have been used in 2020, following their debut at Jerez in July.
Piero Taramasso, Michelin Motorsport Two-Wheel Manager, expects the circuit to be a demanding ask for the equipment, but is confident that they have prepared sufficiently ahead of the racing.
“Back-to-back races are always a demanding time, but at these two events ahead of us we also have the added pressure of three MotoE races over the two weekends, as well as the two MotoGP races. It will be a very busy time.”
“Misano is an unusual circuit and you never really know what to expect. It gave lots of grip in 2018 and we broke records and saw fast and consistent laps, but then last year the asphalt behaved as if there was hardly any traction at all, so it was good to have it resurfaced in readiness for this season and because of testing we conducted with various teams and riders, we have the data to choose this year’s compounds, we now have to see how the asphalt performs during a race weekend.
“MotoE will have three races, one during the first weekend and then two the following week. We will be using the new tyres with the biomaterials and regenerated materials, these performed really well at Jerez in July and we expect them to give the riders the grip they need for this form of sustainable racing.”