Also, Red Bull Ring sees a MotoGP tech first. The circuit is MotoGP’s most demanding on brakes, so for the first time Brembo’s massive 355mm front disc rotors will be mandatory. These discs sit closer to the front wheel rim than any other, so what effect will that have on tyre temperature, always a tricky issue, especially for the Yamaha?
Of course, all this will become irrelevant if it rains on Sunday afternoon, as predicted by the latest weather forecasts.
After Red Bull Ring the paddock travels to Misano, where last year Quartararo was twice second, behind Pecco Bagnaia and Honda’s Marc Márquez, and then to Aragon where he qualified third for the 2021 race but was swamped by faster V4s down the Spanish track’s huge main straight. He took the chequered flag in eighth, with Aprilia, Ducati, Honda and KTM V4s in front of him.
Quartararo seems most worried about the two tracks that follow Aragon: Motegi and Buriram, which both feature numerous slow corner/long straight combinations. Indeed he believes their absence from the last two seasons helped his 2021 title charge.
“We can be fast at all the tracks, but which tracks really suit us? There is no track that really suits us. Of course, last year we didn’t go to Japan and we didn’t go to Thailand, and both are full of acceleration and long straights, so let’s see…”
In fact Quartararo finished second at Buriram in 2019, fighting with Márquez to the last corner, and second at Motegi, chasing Márquez all the way. But Aprilia and Ducati are now much more competitive than they were back then.
As Miller recently declared, the 2019 Desmosedici steered like a London bus, while the latest iteration turns like a Mini Cooper. And the difference between the performance of Aprilia’s latest 90-degree RS-GP and the 2019 bike with its narrow-angle V4 is night and day – in 2019 Aprilia struggled to get into the top ten.
There is one other factor that may help or hinder any of the bikes and riders at Red Bull Ring and Buriram. These tracks generate so much heat into the rear tyre that Michelin will revert to its earlier, stiffer rear slicks. I will never understand why Michelin designed a new rear for 2020, which required the manufactures to revise or redesign their motorcycles, but doesn’t work at all the circuits. Again, slick-tyre performance won’t be an issue if it rains this weekend.
After Thailand it’s Phillip Island, usually an inline-four-friendly circuit, then Sepang, where on MotoGP’s last visit in 2019 Quartararo qualified on pole but was once again overwhelmed by the pack in the race, finishing seventh.