Run-off tyre pressure MotoGP penalty risk ‘needs to be looked at’
Marc Marquez: 'It takes 2 laps to come back, and those 2 laps made me out of that minimum [pressure] today'.
MotoGP’s real time tyre-pressure monitoring system has now been in place for almost one calendar year.
But while some had already warned about the theoretical risk of a rider being penalised just for running off track or remounting after a fall, it appeared to happen for real in Sunday’s Dutch MotoGP.
Marc Marquez was given a 16-second post-race penalty, dropping him from fourth to tenth, for failing to reach the required 1.8-bar minimum front pressure for at least 60% of the grand prix laps.
But the Gresini Ducati rider later revealed that the heat and pressure lost when he backed off after being forced off-track during an overtake by Enea Bastianini, on lap 21 of 26, had made the difference.
“I was controlling [the tyre pressure] in a good way,” said Marquez, who allowed Fabio di Giannantonio to pass early in the race so that he could follow the VR46 rider and raise his tyre pressure, rather than lead the group in the cooler fresh air.
“I was inside, inside, inside [the pressure limit] but what I didn't expect was the contact from Enea in the first corner.
“He pushed me out, and that lap I was one second slower. I didn't push in Turn 3 and Turn 5, because you don't know how the tyre will be after coming from the runoff area.
“So the pressure dropped again [and then] it takes 2 laps to come back, and those 2 laps made me out of that minimum [60%] today.”
The FIM Stewards later confirmed to Marquez that such circumstances are not currently taken into account, but: “Maybe it can change for the future, I think yes. Especially if somebody hits you and you are out of the track," Marquez said.
“Because now the rules say if you don't do 16 laps [60%] in the pressure, we cannot change the rules. But with these bikes, if you are 1 or 1.5 seconds slower in one lap, then the pressure already drops 0.05 bar.”
So how might the tyre pressure rules be modified to take such incidents into account?
Speaking on the latest edition of the Crash.net MotoGP podcast, MotoGP editor Pete McLaren said:
“Marc accepted the decision, but said it was only the smallest of margins he was punished for and that the move by Bastianini made the difference. He ran off, lost time, the tyre cooled and the pressure dropped slightly.
“Marc’s crew chief Frankie Carchedi was one of the guys that previously highlighted exactly this sort of issue: That if someone falls, or runs off and rejoins, they're going to be at risk of being below the minimum pressure due to the lap(s) lost as they get back up to speed.
“There needs to be something done, also because what would happen if it started spitting with rain and all riders lost 2-3 seconds a lap? Everyone’s pressure would probably be too low.
“Even a sudden drop in temperature or increase in wind might be enough to slow the pace and wreck the pre-race pressure calculations.
“One way of removing racing incidents or major weather changes would be to treat tyre pressure a bit like track limits, but in reverse!
“So if a rider is significantly slower through a sector than normal, then that lap is scrubbed from the pressure percentage calculation.
“Or something like the 105% lap time rule could be used, to remove any unusually slow laps from the pressure calculations.
“The other side of the argument is to say, ‘well, everyone else was legal on Sunday’.
"But Marc says he was managing the pressure and on course to be legal. What he couldn’t manage or predict was the moment with Bastianini where he was nudged off track.
“That kind of racing incident could certainly crop up again and so I think it needs to be looked at from the pressure perspective.”
