Who is Going to Tell Them?

Sunday's mad wet race at Motegi was what the paddock needed after the previous day's staggering revelations that Dorna are looking towards a control tyre for next year, because the racing was - and I quote the emotional people in this paddock - rubbish.

I say 'emotional' because they have obviously have no sense of history, nor perspective on this sport, nor indeed any other sports.

Everything is cyclical. Everything. The fact that one tyre brand is struggling for a couple of races doesn't mean that we need to reinvent the sport overnight. I cannot remember how many times I've said over the past few weeks, "why doesn't everyone just slow down a minute".

It's hardly as if Michelin are four seconds a lap off the pace all of a sudden. And for crying out loud, what's to say that Casey Stoner hasn't just ridden far better than the next bloke, and that includes Valentino Rossi? Yes, Rossi. It's no different than someone beating a triple jump of Carl Lewis or 1500 metre time of Sebastian Coe. Sooner or later it is going to happen. Fact.

Bridgestone and Michelin tyres © DPPI

So, going back to what has happened with talk of a single tyre brand. It seems that in a Riders Safety Commission meeting at the USGP in July, there was heated discussion between Carmelo Ezpeleta of Dorna and some riders who discussed the level of the 'show'.

Ezpeleta apparently said that 'this is not NASCAR', in reference to manipulating the show purely for the fans.

Trouble is that the next day's race was hardly the most thrilling. Ironically, Bridgestone filled the podium after their woes at the place last year, when they struggled with the Ducatis.

A couple or races later at Estoril, and Michelin fought back in dominant style, happy that their post-Misano test had got them back on the straight and narrow.

The same was going to happen at Motegi, with Pedrosa due to fight back against all the odds against the strength of Ducati and Bridgestone; a rider utterly fired up to win, angry after the off in Misano and the near-win at Estoril. He was just out to whip 'em all. But then it rained...

There were a couple of stinkers regarding the tyre discussions at Motegi; the main one being that the proposal very nearly overshadowed the crowning of a new World Champion and a new manufacturer winning. Never has a paddock been united against the knee-jerk reaction of so few.

But late into the Motegi evening on Saturday, it came about that Michelin nor Dunlop knew anything about this at all. Frederic-Henri Biabaud was visably shocked when I spoke to him when he came out of a meeting with all of his Michelin staff at the track.

Later that evening, the main thing that came to light was that this hadn't originated from Dorna but from Rossi himself, tired of losing and looking for a level playing field.

This is the biggest sour grape job ever, and as much as Rossi is a genuinely good guy at heart, he seems to forget that when he was winning 62 MotoGP races on Michelin tyres, he was happy to win, win, win, take five titles - and take the money, too.

As soon as someone does a better job, especially one whom Rossi never considered a threat, and on a bike that he had the opportunity to ride were it not for him not having faith in Ducati, then Rossi says it ain't fair.

Well life ain't fair at times, so just like the others who put the hard work in on Bridgestones for all those years, like John Hopkins and Loris Capirossi, who at times knew they would be nowhere even before they left home on Wednesday, Rossi had just better count to ten, persevere with Michelin's fight back and realise that they will not be down for long.

As I said, if it were dry last Sunday at Motegi, then Michelin would have won after their block-out of the front row on Saturday.

Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi battle for position at Motegi © DPPI

What these 'I want something else because I'm losing' people have to realise is that this all goes deeper than they have actually thought about.

If we go for a one-tyre championship, first off, Ezpeleta is right in that we don't want to turn it into a show that is dumbed down. The fans are not stupid and they want racing with some variety, rather than a commercial advert going around four seconds off the pace.

This is a prototype Grand Prix World Championship that is the most free championship out there at the moment. Superbikes are production machines modified to go racing - the WTCC of the bike world, with a control tyre.

It's the same with WRC, whilst F1 has a single engine capacity, configuration, V angle, number of valves, soon-to-be common ECU (although that's a good idea to rid traction control) and therefore power. Where's the variety?

MotoGP has variety, and it is a jewel in the motorsport crown, with different engine configurations such as the screaming Ducati V4 versus the 'thinks it's a big bang' Yamaha straight-four.

And what if the single tyre decided upon is actually Michelin? Or Dunlop? What will Ducati and Suzuki think of that, having spent the past three seasons with Bridgestone?

What will Honda say if it is Dunlop? Who is to say that Pirelli or Metzeler haven't been asked? Will that put everyone back to zero, or will it give Ducati an advantage because their engine has maybe less torque than the Honda out of the slow corners?

Different engines work differently with control tyres; just ask Ducati's V-Twin Superbike team about how they cannot get their superior torque through the Pirelli control tyres while the high-revving, top-endy fours don't have a problem, because they don't have any torque...

Secondly, are these pro-control tyre people going to walk into the tyre companies and stand up in front of the respective racing departments and tell everyone that they are out of a job? Has anyone thought about that before thinking of their wallet?

However, all of this is irrelevant, as it all devalues the incredible job done by Ducati Corse and Stoner this year.

"I think they forget what this company has done for the last few years. They have a very very short memory. Rossi has won a lot of world championships with this company (Michelin), they were so good to him for many years and all of a sudden after one bad year and they want to change companies. Why do we not have similar bikes and call it the Yamaha R6 Cup?"

Well ridden. Well said, Casey. You tell them.