MotoGP: Michelin’s New COTA Rubber
Rennie Scaysbrook | April 9, 2016
Michelin has bought a brand new, untested tire to Circuit of the Americas for the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas in response to Scott Redding’s recent rear tire delamination suffered in Argentina last week.
The new rear tire is a stiffer construction carcass with a softer compound and will go into the allocation along with three different construction of front tire, and a second medium option rear tire.
“These tires have never been used before, and Marc Marquez went 0.4sec off the fastest lap using it, so we are very happy about this performance given how new the tire is,” said Michelin’s Tim Walpole. “We immediately started designing a new tire the Monday after Argentina’s race and it arrived yesterday (Friday), so it has been a very busy time but we are happy with the tire’s performance.”
Redding’s delaminated rear tire has now been sent back to the Michelin factory at Clermont-Ferrand in France and is undergoing a full analysis to determine the cause of the failure suffered by the British rider during qualifying.
In all, each MotoGP rider will have access to 22 separate tires out 1400 that Michelin have bought to COTA.
