Jerez de la Frontera – Peter Taramasso he is an affable person, very open: with him you can talk about any type of problem related to the tyres. He doesn’t hide, he never backs down, he accepts criticism and explains his reasons to you. He doesn’t want to convince you, he gives you his technical explanation to better understand.
This time, however, he is annoyed: Franco Morbidelli’s words yesterday surprised and saddened him (“The outcome of your performance has a decisive influence on how many positions you earn at the start and what position you are in after two laps: then the temperature rises and you can’t do anything, except try to cool the tyres. It’s the front is the weak point…“). We asked him for a reply: initially he didn’t want to, then he agrees to talk about it, even if he is very careful to use words.
“I heard Franco’s words, we verified the data (which are also available to the team, ed): There was no tire problem, the pressure has never gone above 2 bar and the temperature has not reached 100 °C. Normal values when the asphalt is at 50-55 °C. I don’t question his feelings, but the problems arise when the pressure reaches 2.2/2.3 bar and the temperature of the rubber exceeds 120 °C”.
Taramasso explains how there are many parameters that affect driving, not just the tyres, but also there‘aerodynamics, motorcycles, lowering units, increasingly larger discstherefore more and more powerful but also that they give off more heat than the first ones.
“The teams and engineers – underlines the Michelin manager – have done a great job, now they know how to manage temperature and pressure, keeping them at acceptable levels for the race”.
In support of Taramasso there are some data: Binder made his flying lap on the last pass; Bagnaia set the fastest time of the GP on lap 19; difficult to do if the tire does not work well.
It is also right to take stock of the situation on the famous data which, from the Spanish GP, should have been taken into consideration by the regulation and not only at an “informative” level.
“Michelin is in favor. We ask that the minimum pressure is not lower than 1.88 for 50% of the Sunday race and 30% for the sprint. Nothing changes at the work level, the pressures are the same, only a unified control process is introduced”.
As for the future, Michelin wants to arrive at a front that works well at 1.7more stable in maintaining pressure: it will be tested in the tests on Monday at Misano after the GP, to be introduced in 2025.
