Photo: motogp.com
Breaking news from the MotoGP paddock, as motogp.com announces that Bridgestone will no longer be the Official Tire Supplier of the championship after the end of the 2015 season.
Bridgestone become the Official Tire Supplier to MotoGP back in 2009, 7 years after debuting in the series alongside the 4-stroke machines. Just like the contracts of the top riders are ending in 2014, Bridgestone’s deal with the FIM and Dorna was drawing to an end, as well. However, the Japanese tire manufacturer and the two sporting organizations agreed to supply tires for the 2015 season.
No real, credible reasons for such a decision have been mentioned by Bridgestone, the FIM or Dorna, but we can safely infer that the move was an aftermath to several of the “inconsistencies” during the past 6 races, from the Phillip Island flag-to-flag round in 2013, to the rather weird behavior of its 2014-spec tires at Losail, the use of 2013-spec ones at the COTA.
Bridgestone mentions it will exit the MotoGP completely, so natural questions pop up. First of all, it’s seeing if Dorna will continue to run a single-manufacturer setup for the MotoGP, and which one will it be, with Pirelli or Michelin being the first choices, obviously.
We might still get to see more than one tire supplier to the series, which is somehow contrary to the leveling-up trend. It’s going to be interesting to see whether the spec ECU already in use and the spec software which will become mandatory from 2016 will “match” with the freedom team has to choose its own tire manufacturer.
If you’re in for shallow corporate declarations, please read more at motogp.com
No real, credible reasons for such a decision have been mentioned by Bridgestone, the FIM or Dorna, but we can safely infer that the move was an aftermath to several of the “inconsistencies” during the past 6 races, from the Phillip Island flag-to-flag round in 2013, to the rather weird behavior of its 2014-spec tires at Losail, the use of 2013-spec ones at the COTA.
Bridgestone mentions it will exit the MotoGP completely, so natural questions pop up. First of all, it’s seeing if Dorna will continue to run a single-manufacturer setup for the MotoGP, and which one will it be, with Pirelli or Michelin being the first choices, obviously.
We might still get to see more than one tire supplier to the series, which is somehow contrary to the leveling-up trend. It’s going to be interesting to see whether the spec ECU already in use and the spec software which will become mandatory from 2016 will “match” with the freedom team has to choose its own tire manufacturer.
If you’re in for shallow corporate declarations, please read more at motogp.com
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