Why MotoGP has to ban winglets

Last week the FIM's Grand Prix Commission did two thirds of a job. The panel voted to outlaw aerodynamic winglets in Moto2 immediately and in Moto3 at the end of this year, but not where they are most rampant and action is most needed: MotoGP.

Fairing winglets have been sprouting up and down the MotoGP grid over the last 12 months, essentially to help reduce wheelies. Ducati got the ball rolling, Yamaha got involved before the end of the 2015 season and Honda became the latest to add them during pre-season testing, when the first examples also appeared on Moto2 and Moto3 bikes.

When you add the satellite Ducatis and Tech3 Yamahas to the equation, more than half of the field used them at one point or another during the Qatar Grand Prix weekend. As development continued, including the debut of a double-stacked Ducati effort, there was plenty of talk on the topic and the potential ramifications.

LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow was among those to express safety concerns.

"Half of me thinks say nothing, because maybe we need them, if they're working," he said. "But the way I see it, imagine they sliced someone's leg clean open? They all say they will break before [that happens, but] that's not necessarily true. How do they know it will break?

"When I knocked [Andrea Dovizioso] off last year [in Malaysia], I honestly don't know whether I hit the wing or I hit his handlebar. Maybe that's the reason, we couldn't really see from the video.

"Those things are radical, but they're within the rules. I would be more concerned if they were to slice someone open, or if something really strange happens."

Crutchlow also touched on the "out-of-control" turbulence they create, citing an example from Phillip Island's race last year, where he reckoned Dani Pedrosa looked like he was going to "fly off in sixth gear" while following Andrea Iannone's Ducati.

The Spaniard endorsed Crutchlow's version of events. "It is creating turbulence," Pedrosa said, "when you're behind [the bike] or when he passes you. You lose the front contact [with the road] and you lose control - the front is shaking."

These concerns are nothing new. While Crutchlow doesn't yet have access to winglets, Bradley Smith had a pair for his Tech3 Yamaha for the season opener. He broke one set when he crashed in first practice, but still outlined his reservations.

"I complained already last year and all the riders laughed at me in the safety commission, so I'm just glad they're all waking up to the fact that what I was saying was true," Smith said.

"I complained about it in Aragon, when I was behind Dovi. It's something I brought up to the safety commission there, and it's down to them to decide what they want to do. At the moment the ruling is we're allowed to use them, so I can't speak too much against them.

"Definitely the bike shakes [in the turbulence]. It gets to a certain speed and the bike starts to shake as you're coming towards the braking, usually. It's not a lot of fun when you're trying to get to a brake point."

Factory riders were a little more reserved on the topic, but Valentino Rossi maintains his view that he does not like winglets. He tried them during practice, but did not have any fitted to his Yamaha in the race, unlike team-mate and victor Jorge Lorenzo.

"I don't like the wings in general, because they are quite ugly," Rossi said, "but especially because, for me, I don't feel a difference."

Rossi is bang-on regarding aesthetics. MotoGP bikes have remained relatively smooth and clean and have genuinely progressed in terms of looks over the years, which is not something you can say for too many forms of motorsport. The fairings are refined and sleek, but also have that 'this is a proper machine' sort of presence that you expect.

Adding winglets not only detracts from how the bikes look, but also contributes nothing to the show. Sure, there's a minor element of intrigue around their development, but do they add anything to what you get out of watching MotoGP? Not for me.

And if they are making following another bike more difficult, surely that's only going to start to hurt the quality of the racing. Think about any four-wheeled motorsport category and the negative connotations around 'dirty air' that seemingly stop a driver getting close enough to try to pass a rival.

I covered the DTM last year and while I have a lot of time for the series, I consider the aerodynamic contraptions on those Audis, BMWs and Mercedes to be completely stupid. Take a moment to look at the cars that went pre-season testing earlier this year.

That's a series with way too much of an aero focus. Not only does it make overtaking harder than it should be, those tiny winglets actually ruin races. I remember an instance last year of a driver telling me that he didn't know he had touched another car amid a typical first-lap moment, but the damage was severe enough to end his race.

"I didn't even feel it, it was the lightest contact," he said. "I didn't feel a hit or anything, and after that the front diffuser was broken and the car was a write-off. It's really weird.

"I got out of the car, had a look at the front and thought, 'How did that happen?' One-in-a-million shot at the right angle, because there was a big hole in the front of the car, all the flicks were missing, the splitter was broken.

"It's just weird. I didn't think I hit anyone, but obviously I did."

Now I'm not saying MotoGP will ever get to that level, but aerodynamics in the DTM clearly started somewhere. The cars' technical specification is frozen for several years at a time, and with so many control components and tight regulations, aerodynamics is the primary battlefront.

Manufacturers throw big money at tiny gains, which I'd suggest is what could happen within MotoGP. And will only get worse the longer it goes on, and the more elaborate the winglets are allowed to become.

Surely if the winglets were so crucial, we would be talking about them helping the Ducatis lead in Qatar, rather than the Desmosedici's engine power...

There is ample scope in the MotoGP regulations for factories to develop their bikes, but they clearly see this as the big area for development and want to invest in it, which is absolutely their right until the rules are rewritten.

One of the biggest changes to MotoGP this year is the introduction of a control electronics system, produced by Magneti Marelli. Part of the motivation was to close off a major area of development (read arms race).

The money spent there did not improve the show; in fact you could make a strong argument for saying it hurt MotoGP, that the dominant manufacturers were staying one step ahead, building on their expertise while others desperately played catch-up.

If the regulations were tightened to help control costs, surely doing the same with aerodynamics is a no-brainer, even before you mention safety?

The commission obviously saw reason enough to do so in the feeder classes, although it must be pointed out that the first Moto2 winglets were rear-facing, specifically designed to disturb following riders, hence the immediate ban.

Look at how much the black art of aero controls Formula 1. Not just the thousands of hours of windtunnel time to build a car, but the relentless push to bring updates to every grand prix. Money equals brain power equals results.

MotoGP has an opportunity to ensure it never goes down that path, something F1 probably could have done 40 years ago. Remember how ridiculous the cars looked at the end of 2008, for instance?

There will be resistance from the manufacturers, who have a say in how MotoGP is run. Ducati, for instance, may argue that its 2016 package was developed around these winglets, and that it would be disadvantaged if they had to rip them off before the next race in Argentina.

Honda, as another example, might be 'this close' to having its next development (for all intents and purposes already paid for) ready to add to its bike.

So rather than trying to ban the winglets immediately, perhaps an approach like Moto3 is best applied, that winglets will no longer be allowed after this year's Valencia finale. But, as a starting measure, all winglets to be used this season must pass scrutineering at or before the Mugello round in late May, effectively stopping the development cycle.

That, to me, is a happy medium. It doesn't kill what the manufacturers have already invested in, but stops winglets before they gather too much traction and start defining MotoGP.