A New MotoGP Balance At Circuit Of The Americas?

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ith three of the four free practice sessions completed at Circuit of The America, Andrea Iannone and his factory Suzuki were on top, leaving Marc Márquez, who has won every MotoGP race held at the Texas racetrack, second. In qualifying, Márquez scratched his way back to the top, crashing eight minutes from the end but reaching his garage in time for a last go on the “B” bike. Even so, all of the other four bikes in the top five were Yamahas and a Suzuki—corner-speed bikes and riders. This Formula 1-inspired track, with its opening squiggles and long straight, has for years been considered to favor the point-and-shoot style of Márquez and the quick-maneuvering Honda. But that now conflicts with the fact that the corner-speed bikes—formerly nowhere at this track—have crowded threateningly toward the top.

Something has changed. What is it?

On Friday we had the privilege of conversation with Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda), winner of the previous race in Argentina, and a man known for his "damn the torpedoes" candor.

He said that, yes, the Hondas are superior in braking and turn-in, but that the stronger chassis necessary to achieve this cannot hook up in the long corners as well as can the “softer” corner-speed bikes. They, with their higher speed through such corners (especially if, as here, they are bumpy), can potentially more than make up the difference.

No one works harder to find the last ounce of grip than Márquez. COTA remains bumpy despite the grinding down of waves in turns 2–6—just watch all the jigging and jerking visible from the on-bike cameras. The harder you push over such waves and chop, the lighter the tire contact becomes over the peaks; it becomes like valves floating as their springs can no longer make the system follow the cam contour.

At each such point there is traction loss, but riders like Márquez today and Yvon Duhamel 45 years ago aren’t distracted by such “noise.” A succession of little slips and sudden step-outs means nothing. What they seek to detect and prevent is any slip that moves far enough to become irrecoverable. You could see this in Márquez’s practices, punctuated by a small crash.

Márquez is also wasting no time in the several direction changes early in each lap—very quick and precise side-to-side gymnastic movements of his whole body are the rule—a level of activity too tiring for many other riders, whose movements seem languid by comparison.

Crutchlow had more to say. When I reminded him of his remark back in the Bridgestone era, describing Honda’s “vee-shaped” cornering line,” he cut in, saying that the Michelins (which, in 2016, replaced Bridgestone as the spec tire in MotoGP) now favor a rounder line, forcing those who formerly rode the vee-shaped line to change their styles and adapt.

It’s important at this point to remember that a corner-speed bike (Yamaha, Suzuki, and to a degree now also Ducati) and a point-and-shoot bike (Honda!) are different in their basic structure and geometry; no rider or crew can convert one to the other by switching springs and twisting clickers. As Crutchlow said of his time on Yamaha a few years ago, “I’m from Superbike, so when I got on the Yamaha, that’s how I tried to ride it. It wouldn’t do it. I had to learn to ride it its way.”

Other changes that you can see by just staring at the TV feed are as follows and very interesting:

Márquez and Dani Pedrosa on Bridgestones could in years past clearly be seen to make corners in two stages: an initial entry period of slower turning at a large but not maximum lean angle, followed by the point of the vee, at which the lean angle increased to elbow-dragging level for most rapid turning, followed immediately by the rider’s pushing the bike up while himself staying down, to make possible immediate hard acceleration on a more capable part of the tire.

But today, on Michelins, no more whole body off the bike on the inside, and very little elbow dragging. Instead, Márquez is back to a more Mike Hailwood-like style of knee down. And no more point of the vee, where turning is especially rapid.

At the same time, when I looked at Valentino Rossi and Johann Zarco today, they are, during corner exit, clearly pushing their bikes up to get on the fat “acceleration” part of their Michelin rears, while themselves staying down.

Another point, made by at least three of our informants, is that the Michelin fronts, once the source of much rider complaint for their tendency to “close” (turn in as a result of losing grip), have now greatly improved.

What does all this tell us? It tells us that there is no eternal ideal line through any corner and no “correct” riding style, only the lines and styles that riders determine by feel to be best on a given day, with particular tires and particular bikes.

This reminds me of what Erv Kanemoto learned when he and Freddie Spencer went to their first big Honda 500cc GP test in 1982 in Brazil. Kanemoto had brought a radar speed gun, hoping it would help them to understand and better exploit setup variables. As soon as Spencer had his tires hot and began riding stints, Kanemoto put the speed gun away. Spencer’s corner speed wasn’t varying, so there was nothing to measure. He was always fast.

Why? Spencer was compensating for all the setup and equipment changes being thrown at him by the crew and the bumpy circuit. Kanemoto did discover a variable not usually found on test reports: the amount of sweat in Spencer's helmet after a particular stint. If the setup was poor, Spencer had to work harder to compensate and go fast in spite of it. And so they chose the lowest-sweat combinations as the best.

It is a fascinating process to try to see the significant changes happening in MotoGP, to work out possible reasons for them, and sometimes to learn directly from a participant as analytical as Crutchlow. During our conversation, he had noted more than once that in MotoGP as it is today, changing circumstances could easily put him 10th despite having just won Argentina. Today, in second qualifying, he was seventh.