MotoGP will introduce its long-awaited tyre pressure monitoring system for next weekend’s British Grand Prix, with penalties potentially to be given out should teams fail to stick to mandated pressures.
The series has been developing the system in conjunction with the 11 teams currently competing within MotoGP over the past year or so after it was found that teams commonly ran their front tyres below championship tyre supplier Michelin’s mandated pressures, something done in order to aid performance.
The knock on effect of doing this can cause tyres to wear beyond comfortable levels, potentially putting riders at risk should a tyre suffer a failure during a race.
MotoGP thus began to develop a system that would record each rider’s tyre pressure’s across the race distance in 2022 by taking data recorded by the teams themselves using sensors – allowing MotoGP to develop its own system that will be used to make sure every team sticks to Michelin’s minimum tyre pressure – a calculation that will vary from track to track.
From next season the series will disqualify any rider that fails to remain above the required pressures for a percentage of the laps that make up the sprint or grand prix races, though due to the mid-season introduction of the system a tiered penalty system will be utilised for the remainder of 2023.
A rider will thus receive a warning for the first offence recorded, while a second will see them granted a three-second time penalty to be added to their next race – while a third and fourth offense will see them pick up a six and twelve seconds added to their finishing time respectively.
The system currently will only be in force in the premier class and not the Moto2, Moto3 and MotoE series and will only be enforced during the sprint and grand prix encounters and not through practice or qualifying sessions.
