MotoGP, Michelin: “Mugello is a high-speed challenge and the weather is mystery”

Four weeks before the French Grand Prix at Le Mans, where the 1,000th race of the World Championship took place, the riders are back in action this weekend for the 6th round of the season: the Italian Grand Prix on the famous Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello.

Mugello has been hosting the World Championship since 1976, two years after becoming a permanent venue. The 5,245 km circuit includes 9 right-hand and 6 left-hand corners, as well as a long straight measuring 1,141 km. This makes the circuit one of the biggest high-speed challenges in the MotoGP, with Jorge Martin establishing the Championship's new top speed record at 363.6 km/h in 2022. Similarly, that weekend’s winner, Francesco Bagnaia, had set a new lap record with a time of 1’46”588s, using the medium Michelin Power Slicks on the front and rear. This year, the riders will have the same tires, with a choice of three different compounds for the front and soft and medium compounds for the rear.

“Mugello is a highly technical circuit, with a combination of slow corners, wide high-speed corners and a long straight,” Piero Taramasso, head of Michelin's two-wheel motorsport programs explained. “It’s a particularly challenging track for tires, which are subjected to considerable stress and sudden braking in some areas. The asphalt is not as abrasive, but we still opted for symmetrical front and asymmetrical rear tires, with a harder compound on the right. Rain can’t be ruled out, and it could be warmer than usual, since the race takes place two weeks later than last year. We might even notice significant temperature differences between the morning and afternoon.”

“That’s why we chose the soft and medium compounds for the rear, in order to satisfy all the potential circumstances with versatile tires that offer consistent performance. For the front, we’ll have the three usual choices, and we expect the riders to use them all during the tests, in order to establish the optimal set-up for the weekend,” Taramasso concluded.

If it rains, the tires will be available in soft and medium options for both the front and rear, with the same profiles as their slick counterparts.