Nonostante abbia vinto il titolo costruttori (in verità dovuto anche alla penalizzazione inflitta alla Yamaha) la Ducati ha appena completato la sua peggiore stagione in MotoGP da anni; i suoi piloti, Dovizioso e Petrucci, hanno vinto solo due Gran Premi, un bottino molto scarso rispetto a una media di cinque vittorie all’anno nei tre campionati precedenti.

This negative result is largely due to the extra grip of the rear tyre that Michelin has prepared for 2020, a tyre to which Suzuki, Yamaha and, according to the results, also KTM have adapted better.

Honda also seems to have suffered, Yamaha itself has repeatedly declared problems at the front, but the Ducati, which already had “turning” problems, seems to have suffered most of all.

Andrea Dovizioso has repeatedly stated his difficulties in managing the new Michelin rear tyre while there came a time when it seemed that Bagnaia with his “soft” guide was the best interpreter of the GP20 combined with this rubber. Then, after a couple of brilliant performances, he too began to have big problems with the front that often betrayed him in the brake release phase.

When the rider increases the load on the front tire that is crushed towards the ground and thus increases the support surface and consequently the grip; obviously when the brake is released the load on the tire decreases and the grip also decreases; it is at this point that riders that phenomenon is triggered, highlighted by the riders saying that the rear tire “pushes” on the front, which determines understeer or difficulty closing the curve.

Dovizioso uses the expression “pop up” to describe the moment when the front tire returns to its normal shape.

Something similar also occurs during acceleration when the rideropening the gas, generates a load transfer to the rear of the bike, thus lightening the front.

Before Michelin introduced the new rear tyre Andrea solved the problem of understeer by derailing the rear thus managing to close the curve, a maneuver that no longer succeeds due to the extra grip of the 2020 tyre.

When the phenomenon does not particularly put the grip on the front Bagnaia in crisis, he can use his driving technique to bring so much speed to the corner, but he goes into difficulty on slopes with poor grip or in low temperature conditions.

In this connection, we would like to point out that the pandemic has forced DORNA to organize an unbalanced championship towards the autumn/winter season; the last race took place on November 22, a few days before the start of the meteorological winter (1 December – 28 February).

“The problem is the temperature of the front tire,”bagnaia explains. “With my style it is more difficult to heat the front tire. This is an advantage in hot conditions, because it does not overheat the gum, but when it is cold it is worse. Now I’m starting to work better at this: I’m trying to push hard from the moment we get on the track, like Jack does. This is not so easy to do, but it is the only way to heat the tire when the temperature of the track is not hot enough.“

In theory, therefore, a better front tyre would be a big advantage for Bagnaia in 2021 when, together with Miller, he will be in the official Ducati team replacing Dovizioso in the Italian iridate hopes.

In practice it is thought that it could restore the original balance of the Desmosedici by increasing the adhesion to the front to counteract the thrust of the rear.

La Michelin ha sviluppato già da un po’di tempo un nuovo pneumatico anteriore che dovrebbe sposarsi meglio con il posteriore 2020 e che ha fatto provare ai piloti della MotoGP l’anno scorso con l’intenzione di introdurla nel 2021. Tuttavia, a causa dei vincoli di budget e logistici causati dal Covid-19, la Michelin ha deciso di ritardare l’introduzione del pneumatico al 2022.

It is therefore permissible for Ducati to ask Michelin, and DORNA, to provide the teams with its new front tyre a year in advance hoping to have it available already from the tests that should take place, covid permitting, in Malaysia and Qatar in February.