Álex Rins Wins at COTA

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Álex Rins gave LCR Honda its 100th podium in MotoGP. (MotoGP/)

If upsetting the experts’ predictions and providing surprise results are the aim of Dorna’s new sprint weekend format, then the US round of MotoGP at Austin, Texas, was a success.

No, Ducati’s “Red Army” of talented young riders on the best bike in the series did not dominate with ease (but Luca Marini was second on Ducati). Yes, Álex Rins’ well-managed win on a Honda was unexpected, as was Fabio Quartararo’s third place on one of the “all-wrong-and-needs-fundamental-redesign” Yamahas. And there in fourth place was a supremely confident Maverick Viñales on an Aprilia—with not a trace of the depression of past years.

And where was Francesco Bagnaia, who looked ready to again masterfully cruise in P1, out of reach? Crashed, with no clue as to why. And the newly fast Álex Márquez, now on Ducati? Brought down by Jorge Martín’s crash. And Jack Miller, showing refreshed speed on KTM? Crashed. Likewise Joan Mir, Brad Binder, Takaaki Nakagami. Nine DNFs in all, two of them credited to Aprilia’s rear ride height system locking down. Thirteen running at the end.

Bagnaia was in control in Saturday’s sprint race. After challenges, he pulled away. But his crash on Sunday puzzled him.

“Personally, I don’t understand how it’s possible to do 80 laps in three days, always doing the same thing, only to crash without doing anything different.

A winner on Saturday, Pecco Bagnaia crashed out on Sunday. (Ducati/)

“But maybe the bike filters too much with the tires, and maybe I’m missing some warnings in terms of feeling.”

He was also puzzled by 2023′s lap times. “The track is worse than in 2022. Nevertheless this year we were half a second faster per lap.

“We have the best bike on the grid, but…we lost 45 points in two weekends.”

Why so many crashes? There’s no shortage of answers. The new sprint format moves the weekend’s emphasis away from the old practice-by-practice prep for Sunday’s race, becoming intense pressure for one hot lap in first practice, unlocking entry to Q2 and a forward start position for both sprint and final.

Stefan Bradl, standing in for the injured Marc Márquez, said of the new format, “Everything is about attack—a quick lap. It is the opposite of what we do in testing.”

Several riders referred to COTA as the “most physical” track on the calendar: It features the self-renewing wavy surface that constantly threatens to unload the front tire, provoking high-speed wheelies and instability. And there’s the wind, which does strange things to bikes with one wheel in the air. The “Formula 1 squiggles” early in each COTA lap, requiring a series of rapid direction changes. Four varieties of pavement, very clean this time, but with some rough areas such as turn 12—a veritable Rider Trap.

And there is still the problem of front tire pressure. Franco Morbidelli noted that it takes just one lap for front tire pressure to “go through the roof.” Michelin has set a lower limit on tire pressure (notionally to prevent overheating and failure) but riders know that racing in a pack (ardently desired by race organizers because close racin’ sells tickets) exposes front tires to the hot slipstreams of other bikes—exhaust gas plus hot air coming off rads and oil coolers. Up, up goes front tire temperature, raising pressure with it. Increased pressure reduces footprint size, making locking during braking more likely.

Tires on large aircraft are built with pressure relief to prevent brake heat from causing a tire burst. With penalties now contemplated for operating MotoGP tires below Michelin’s minimum pressures, we can hope that officials will show more respect for physics than old King Canute, sitting in the surf, commanding the tide to go back.

Despite the above complication, as noted by Bagnaia, all records were broken! Miller characterized COTA as “…a slippery and unforgiving track, and you had to ride with that little bit of margin because once you lose speed there’s no way of grabbing back the grip when you have a moment.”

Jack Miller says COTA is slippery and ended up crashing out of Sunday’s race. (KTM/)

As in the earlier races this year, I suspect that the latest aero is providing useful anti-wheelie front downforce even at the lower speeds of corner exit. Quartararo said, “Yesterday (Friday) I followed Pecco. It’s a totally different way to make the lap time. It’s like they’re using much more power, with less wheelie and same traction—and they go away.”

What does “using much more power” mean? It may mean that, as in formula car racing, Ducati can afford the extra power consumed by strong downforce aero. That downforce allows them to accelerate harder, and to avoid the throttle cuts of wheelie control. A wonderful photo from the weekend shows Quartararo, his front wheel a foot in the air while a nearby rival’s bike has its front tire planted on the pavement. It is, in Quartararo’s words, “going away.”

Fabio Quartararo finished third in Austin. (Monster Energy Yamaha/)

Wheelie control overcomes wheelies by reducing power, but Ducati and others can build speed faster off corners by instead using aero downforce to keep the front tire down—not the power-cutting anti-wheelie electronics. It used to be that once your front tire lifted, that was the upper limit of acceleration. But with aero downforce, the front tire stays down even at higher rates of acceleration. And lap records fall, as they are this year. We may eventually see this extra power use having an influence on fuel consumption.

Quartararo has another problem—the clash of styles. His is to ride “The Great Circle Route” at high corner speed. But the others (he holds up a hand to make a Vee sign) ride the Vee-shaped line of the point-and-shoot style.

People continue to puzzle over the Yamaha conundrum. Quartararo observed, “…for four years I haven’t felt a big improvement on [this] bike.” Pundits continue to propose that since Yamaha now has the only inline engine in MotoGP (Suzuki having withdrawn its team), it must somehow be responsible, so just build a V-4. Oh? Then how did Suzuki—with less $$ to spend—get such good performances from its inline engine? And didn’t Yamaha’s Masao Furusawa find a way to reduce the inline engine’s inertia torque (torque required to start and stop all four pistons simultaneously twice per revolution) to V-4 levels by means of the “crossplane crankshaft of 2004″?

Maverick Viñales finished just off the podium. (Aprilia/)

Everybody prototypes everything. Honda built a geared twin-crank 500 two-stroke years ago to make sure Yamaha wasn’t onto something, and Yamaha built a single-crank V-4 to be sure it hadn’t left free performance on the table. You can be pretty sure Yamaha has built a MotoGP V-4 test unit that has generated reams of data.

People in the paddock have remarked upon new rider behavior. Not so long ago, a crowd would gather at the back pit box door of any star rider expected soon to make a dash for his motorhome, possibly surrounded by a “flying squad” to provide crowd penetration.

But this time, here came Bagnaia into the media center, sniffing at the luncheon offerings and talking freely with anyone. This is so far from the superstardom of times past. Others walked around the garage area, enjoying the American scene. Is this the result of the new crowd of talented young riders, almost any one of whom may win a race? The end of the “era of the aliens”?

Have you been curious as to why Marc Márquez’s brother Álex hasn’t accomplished more? I have, and some light has now been shone upon the issue: The Gresini Ducati he is now riding so well may be his first experience of a stable baseline setup. Remember that five-time world champion Mick Doohan forbade his crew from making any changes to his bike without his knowledge and permission? That’s because, to go as fast as Doohan did, you must know how your machine will respond in every circumstance. But if your crew may without notice change the fork, or the engine maps, or the rear suspension leverage curve, you must learn your bike’s responses all over again. There was little enough time for learning in Doohan’s era (25 years ago) and there is less today, making the stability of bike setup the foundation of rider performance. I’m delighted to see Álex’s talents unleashed.

It’s too early to speculate about championship points, so I won’t.

With nine riders DNF at COTA there is surely concern lest the new format be somehow blamed, even though it’s still early days. We’ll learn more from the European rounds coming up.

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