MotoGP control tyre supplier Michelin will expand its allocation to four compounds when free practice begins on Friday as the French firm has had no opportunity to test on the new asphalt.
Michelin’s range this weekend will comprise four front and four rear compounds as opposed to the customary three of each. This is to give all the riders, teams and manufacturers the maximum opportunity to match the tyres which will work the best for them.
Available in soft, medium and two hard versions for both the front and rear, the range also has a split in the designs of the front specification of tyres, with the soft being asymmetric – with a harder right-hand-side – whilst the other three are all symmetric.
The length of the track and its fast nature of its layout over the 10-right-hand and 8-left-hand turns gives a need for an asymmetric rear tyre, so all four choices will feature this design, with the harder compound on the right shoulder of the tyre, this is due to the demands being greater for that part of the surface area over the 20-lap race.
“This is another big challenge for us as we are heading to the longest track of the year after it has a full resurface and we have not had the opportunity to test there. We have had full advice from Silverstone, the company that laid the asphalt and have also had lots of information from other relevant parties that have given us some valuable feedback about the track,” said Bibendum boss Piero Taramasso.
“We also have our own data and we are confident that we will have the correct compounds for the new surface. When this season’s allocations were prepared at the start of the year, we were able to decide on four front and rear tyres for Silverstone and these will give all the riders different options to appraise before they make their race tyre decision.”