MotoGP technical director Danny Aldridge has explained why he originally passed Ducati's controversial swingarm-mounted winglet.
Aprilia, Honda, Suzuki and KTM launched a protest against Ducati and its use of its swingarm-mounted winglet in the Qatar Grand Prix, with which Andrea Dovizioso won the season-opening race.
Aldridge rejected the initial protest, before the case was taken to the Court of Appeals – which eventually ruled in favour of Ducati, backing up Aldridge's original assessment based on Ducati's presented data that the device was for rear tyre cooling, and was therefore not an illegal aerodynamic device.
He has come in for criticism from several team bosses since Qatar over the current regulations, but Aldridge stands firm in his position over Ducati's device.
Speaking to motogp.com during Argentina FP1, he said: “[It’s] very simple, we have a set of guidelines that the manufacturers have to follow.
“It’s sort of an appendix of the rule book and this is updated as and when we feel necessary to clarify certain situations, such as the aerobody.
“At the beginning of March, before the [Qatar] Grand Prix, we updated these guidelines to control what was allowed on the swingarm, as an attachment.
“These guidelines define what can be used there and what can’t. One of the items that it’s allowed to be used for is cooling the rear tyre and also water dispersion, which Yamaha have used as well [in the wet Valencia race in 2018].
“So Ducati came to me in Qatar, they said ‘we have this device, the primary purpose of this device was to aid the cooling of the rear tyre because they thought they had a problem with this.
“Following the demonstration to me, I examined and, in my opinion, it did what they said; the primary purpose was for cooling.
“From this point onwards the other manufacturers felt this was not correct, that in their opinion, from the information they had, it was for more downforce, which is not allowed in the guidelines.
“This is where the issue occurred, this is why they put the protest in, the protest was rejected and was in my favour, that my reading of the rules was correct and the reason for it, as Ducati declared, was for cooling.”
Ducati general manager Luigi Dall'Igna revealed on Thursday the device cooled the rear tyre by an average of seven degrees, while claiming only 300 grams of downforce were generated by it.
It is thought Honda submitted its own interpretation of the device ahead of Friday's running, but this was rejected as it stated its intended purpose was aerodynamic – a move which is rumoured to have been done intentionally to highlight the flaws in the current rules.
Aldridge refused to comment on this in the same interview, stating: “I would never make it public knowledge what is new until it goes on track, so I can’t say if anyone has come to me and I won’t say if anything’s been rejected at this point.”
Discussion about this post