After it emerged in 2022 that numerous teams had been taking advantage of a grey area in the regulations and running tyre pressures outside of the recommended minimum limit, new regulations were implemented for 2023.
For 2023, riders and teams must adhere to a minimum front tyre pressure of 1.9 bar (27.6psi) and 1.7 bar (24.7psi) on the rear.
However, this rule coming into force has been kicked down the road on several occasions this year to allow for more testing of the unified tyre pressure sensors to take place.
The rule will now be mandated from August’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
As the system is new, the minimum front and rear pressures will be monitored only in the sprint race and grands prix.
Penalties will be dished out on a sliding scale, with a first offence copping a warning, with each subsequent contravention of the rule resulting in a time penalty: three seconds, then six, then 12s to be added to a rider’s results.
Disqualification will eventually be implemented for any rider caught operating their tyres outside of the minimum pressures once teams are used to the system.
During pre-season testing in February, a number of riders raised concerns over safety under the new regulations – particularly with the front tyre pressures.
“We worked quite a lot on the new rules of pressure, that are interesting,” Alex Marquez said at the Sepang test earlier this year.
“The front one, honestly, has no sense, especially for the race, because it can be unsafe.
“For the rear one, I totally agree. The whole weekend, time attack, everything [I was running above the minimum level].
“You can be disqualified [in the race]. In Australia, I think, 13 riders would have been disqualified, or something like this. Because you never know on the race where you will be.”
During testing of the system, some riders – including Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro – found that the numbers being returned by their manufacturers’ tyre pressure sensor and the new spec system did not match.
As the season has gone on, some riders have complained about the difficulties they have faced in overtaking on current MotoGP bikes, with rocketing front tyre pressures part of this issue.
