There has been a lot of talk of tires in 2021. Tires are always a key part of the performance package in motorcycle racing, but they seem to have played an even more important role in 2021.
At Silverstone, Pecco Bagnaia complained of a bad rear tire, while Joan Mir said his front tire was off.
Two weeks later, it was the turn of Fabio Quartararo to complain of his rear tire, and there have been a litany of complaints from riders throughout this season.
Are these complaints justified? From outside, it is hard to tell.
With grids commonly separated by a second, and grid rows separated by a tenth or less, the differences between being perfect and being just slightly off in terms of setup, tire pressure, bike balance have grown massively in importance.
This is not made any easier by the fact that the Michelins have a relatively narrow operating window in terms of temperature.
Go just outside that temperature range, and performance drops off dramatically. The devil is increasingly in the detail, and tires are the biggest detail of all.
