Michelin discuss 2016 tyre allocation

With rain rendering most of Monday’s Michelin test useless MCN was able to spend some time with Michelin’s Piero Taramasso to discuss how the French tyre manufacturer is approaching their return to the sport..

One of the biggest changes that we’ve seen with Michelin is that they will bring intermediates back to the series. The decision will be of crucial use in flag to flag race where a rider may risk not pitting for slicks on a drying track or gamble on the rain not falling heavily.

“We’ll bring intermediates to races next year,” said Taramasso. “The reason was because it Dorna asked us to bring intermediates. The reason is because it’s for the Friday, Saturday when it’s qualifying, when it’s mixed conditions the riders don’t go out.

“For the spectators it is not very fun so they ask us please bring an intermediate so when the condition are not wet, not too dry, so they can do a few laps for the spectators. So we decided to bring it and the location will be three front, three rear, per weekend, per rider. And wet will be seven, maximum delegation will be seven front and seven rear.”

From a slicks perspective Michelin will bring soft and hard compounds that they are confident will offer longevity and conistency of performance to riders to avoid any issues with tyres falling off a cliff during a race.

“The slick allocation will be close to the actual tire supplier, just we bring one more rear. So compared to today’s rule we will bring one more rear tire. We’ll bring a soft and a hard compound.”