2022 Grand Prix of the Americas MotoGP Report

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With Marc Márquez still not riding at 100 percent, a COTA victory was up for grabs, and grab it Enea Bastianini did. The Ducati rider qualified in fifth, with the other four bikes in front of him also Ducatis. By the checkered flag, though, things had changed. (MotoGP/)

At Circuit of The Americas, qualifying packed the front of the MotoGP grid with Ducatis—first through fifth, Jorge Martín on pole. Was this the pattern we’ve been waiting for? Locked out back in sixth was the current champion, Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, down 7 mph in top speed but riding with narrow margins. The two Suzukis of Álex Rins and Joan Mir were next, followed by two of the Hondas so recently hailed as most likely to succeed—returning Marc Márquez and Takaaki Nakagami. In functional nowhereland, 13th and 14th, were the new paragons of apex speed, the Aprilias of Aleix Espargaró and Maverick Viñales.

Márquez is the recognized King of COTA, having won every MotoGP here but one. His stiff, hard-braking and quick-maneuvering Hondas have been the right tool for COTA’s repetitive direction changes—features that have made this the most physically demanding of tracks. Want a workout? Try the bar-bending exercise of manhandling a 400-pound (wet) motorcycle from elbow-down turning in one direction to the other, over and over for 45 minutes, all while holding your line with precision. Remember to breathe.

The track—known for the constant heaving of the clay and variable water table underlying it—had been extensively smoothed this year. Riders reckoned it was much better (and safer) than a year ago, but bumps do remain. To lay persons tooling around the circuit in rental cars it’s perfect. On two wheels, at 200 mph, navigational hazards appear, and riders commit every one to memory. At the first Indianapolis MotoGP, when Casey Stoner stated that the circuit was rough, he was challenged by a Brickyard loyalist: “Where?” He then recited every bump on the racing line, with its effects. Racing in MotoGP is not about gittin’ real friendly with danger—it’s a high-speed intelligence test.

Álex Rins is one of two Suzuki riders to push aside the Ducatis and finish up front. At the end, Rins (second overall) is overtaking Jack Miller only a few laps before the checkers. (MotoGP/)

The bikes shot forward at the start, and Jack Miller was first into turn 1 at the top of the hill. Something glitched on Márquez’s Honda: While showing a dash alarm it behaved as if the pit-lane speed limiter was enabled. He poked buttons, was rewarded with workable function, but was now last—just as he had started his last-ever Moto2 race years ago.

Ducati’s phalanx faltered. Rins was past Francesco Bagnaia by lap six, then past Johann Zarco three laps later. Miller continued to lead, looking a likely winner for 16 laps. Márquez, despite his compromised physical condition and recurring vision problems, was moving up, passing other riders wholesale. As he did so, he was noting and evaluating the clash between his own style and the changed nature of the 2022 Honda, and also finding ways to ride the bike better.

He said, “I knew that riding at 100 percent for all the laps would be impossible, but I gave everything and then when five or six laps remained my body said ‘OK, that’s it,’ and I just tried to finish the race.”

Miller was at the same time being challenged by Enea Bastianini (aka “The Beast”). Miller said, “I tried to break away but made a couple of slight mistakes. Enea was back on me and blitzed me down the back straight. I thought ‘All right. Be calm. Sit behind and see what I can do toward the end of the race.’

Jack Miller (Ducati) made a good showing at COTA. In the end, diminishing tire grip moved him from second back to third. (MotoGP/)

“The next lap we came to turn 11. He went deep and I followed him in and nearly ended up in the car park! Then I heard that Suzuki right next to me.”

Miller was missing apexes. Bastianini had tire left, Jack less so.

“A nice clean battle there, through to the end.”

Miller finished third, with Rins second, just ahead. Suzuki teammate Mir was fourth, another 1.6 seconds back.

Speaking of Bastianini, Miller said, “He’s unreal with the way he puts the throttle down. In some ways he doesn’t ever use the rear of the bike to turn, which is my big problem. I’m always using the rear of the bike to turn.”

More Tire Observations

Every detail of rider style affects tire life! Yet just as beautiful fashion models hate their elbows and feet, Bastianini said, “I’m really fast in entry of the corner, especially when there’s a big braking, but I pay in the middle of the corner because I’m more slow. I have to improve this…”

And the other Ducatis? Bagnaia (fifth) said, “Jack was great because he was fast right from the start with the same specs as me, while I struggled a bit in the early laps.

“I knew the tire consumption was a bit high for us.”

Zarco, who finished ninth? “…I had some difficulties with the rear tire and after that it was impossible to recover.”

Martín, finishing eighth: “A very difficult race. I really gave everything I had but unfortunately it was not enough.”

Rins, too, was at the limit of his tires: “…in the first few laps I was struggling a bit and at risk of losing ground. I had to push the tires more, to brake later, to make good overtakes. When I got into third I had a couple of moments on the front, some mistakes.

“Then, with just two laps to go I felt better and my pace was good. I was able to overtake Jack and get second.”

Like his teammate Rins, Joan Mir had his Suzuki dialed in at COTA, finishing fourth. (MotoGP/)

Riders often report such instances of settling themselves and smoothing out.

Marc Márquez continued his rush to the front to finish sixth, causing speculation that had his bike functioned normally at the start, he could have won. (Márquez himself said “…25 points were possible today.”)

During practice Márquez had noted that “the front of this bike is one of the weak points for my riding style. It is where I am struggling more.

“…today I had some warnings that I did not understand well.”

The classic Márquez style of the past was to rush up to the corner on the front wheel alone, let the rear swing out to turning position and set it down. Get the turning done quickly, lift, and accelerate. This requires a stiff chassis that responds quickest to command, with either maximum weight on the front or, next best, a tallish center of mass that transfers weight pronto during braking/acceleration.

But last year many riders noted that rear grip was poor during corner entry, and some were trying to improve it by moving weight to the back, preferably to the point of sharing braking with the rear wheel.

Marc Márquez, the (former) king of COTA, showing his trademark style, getting the bike turned with the rear wheel off the surface. A software glitch at the start moved him back to dead last, but he charged through the field to finish sixth. (MotoGP/)

Márquez’s severe braking often required him to use a hard front tire. Others on Honda (Nakagami, Pol Espargaró, Álex Márquez), being less severe, may prefer to distribute their turning over a greater distance, needing more side grip from their tires. One element in building side grip is lateral chassis flexibility. It may be that the 2022 Honda is less stiff up front and carries a bit less weight there—features that to Marc Márquez might 1) reduce the force of initial braking and 2) reduce confidence as the more flexible chassis weaved about during braking.

Rubber’s Glass Transition Temperature

Another point to consider: the nature of tire tread rubber. Every rubber compound has what is called its “glass transition temperature” or glass point—a temperature below which the rubber becomes an unyielding solid. In tires for production vehicles this is academic, as the glass point has to be set low enough to allow safe all-weather operation. But long ago it was discovered that for maximum grip there was a temperature zone not too far above the glass point in which the rubber gave outstanding grip. Above that operating-temperature zone, the rubber becomes softer and more elastic, losing grip.

We know from the history of GP racing that Michelin achieved great things by concentrating very powerful grip in a narrow temperature range. This was made practicable by not making the tires until the last possible moment, so being as sure as possible of what conditions would be Sunday afternoon. Tires were manufactured Saturday night and then driven or flown through the small hours to European circuits.

Bridgestone, being half a world away, faced different conditions. To give its tires any chance of success they had to be given a wider operating-temperature range. When a rule change required tires to be at the circuits earlier, Michelin lost the ability to consider the Friday and Saturday tire experience in deciding what to make for Sunday. Bridgestone’s wider working-temperature range gave them an advantage, leading to the Bridgestone era and the adoption of a “control” or spec-tire rule.

Why Are Qualifying Times so Close?

Today, the high variability we are seeing in rider performance is partly caused by how close everyone’s lap times have become (with as many as 21 riders in the first second after qualifying). That magnifies the effects of small changes, but it may also be that current MotoGP race tires have quite narrow operating temperature ranges. What worked well in warmup for rider A relegates him to 12th at race time. How often have we heard riders say, “All our testing through the free practices went well, but as soon as the race started I had no grip.”

Ducatis dominated the qualifying at COTA, sweeping the top five. In the end, they finished first, third, and fifth, clearly demonstrating that they continue to be a major force at every track. (MotoGP/)

Another possibility is that just as grip has increased with tire development (63 degrees of lean angle is pretty impressive) so has suspension load. To keep bikes from bottoming or grounding in turns, their springs must have the necessary stiffness and damping force must keep pace with that. The result is very stiff suspension—so stiff that many riders need help from reduced chassis lateral stiffness. Yet as we see above, point-and-shoot riders thrive on stiffness during braking and turn-in. Also, go too far with relaxing stiffness and you get instability—the weave that riders now call “pumping,” or the “shaking” that Márquez spoke of this weekend. To get one data point, a constructor must design and build a new chassis, test it in house, and then see what its top rider has to say about it. Evidently the way forward is a rocky one, as no one has answers that work consistently.

But wait a minute. At COTA the Suzukis pierced the Wall of Ducatis, and now it looks as though the team has found ways to combine their more powerful 2022 engine with their previous ability to consistently make tires last. That seems really promising.

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