Pirelli explains why MotoGP’s controversial tyre pressure rule will stay for 2027

Honda bid farewell to Joan Mir on 2 July with a social media post ahead of the conclusion of his four-year spell with HRC to join Gresini for the 2027 MotoGP season. In the post, the Tokyo manufacturer wrote: “Three podiums and your champion’s spirit shine bright as the highlights”.

A search through the championship statistics is enough to verify that Mir only scored two podiums with Honda – coming in Japan and Malaysia last year. However, the Mallorcan also stood on the podium at this year’s Catalan GP, finishing second. In the results, however, he appears in 13th place. What happened?

More than an hour after the podium celebrations, the stewards’ panel announced that Mir had breached the tyre pressure rule, imposing a harsh penalty on him. The same happened to Maverick Vinales last year, when he finished second in Austin but was removed from the podium more than an hour later for the same reason.

In both cases, this was a situation that tarnished the image of the championship and that, judging by Honda’s post, does not leave the teams all too happy – and even less so the riders and the fans.

Since it was implemented in 2023, the tyre pressure rule in MotoGP has never stopped generating controversy. With the change of tyre supplier in 2027, it was expected that Pirelli would stop applying it – a rumour that the Italian manufacturer denies.

“We always said that we were going to keep it. I don’t know where the opposite came from,” explained Giorgio Barbier, Pirelli’s motorcycle racing director, in an exclusive conversation with Autosport.

“We must have great respect for the current MotoGP supplier [Michelin]. If, after 11 years, it has established a rule, together with Dorna, because it believes that running at low pressures may constitute a danger, I cannot say that such a danger does not exist. Because I still do not know the MotoGP bikes in depth.

“Where does this overheating of the front tyres come from? Probably from the aerodynamics, from the carbon discs, from having several bikes running in the slipstream with aerodynamics that heat up the front tyre of the rider behind a lot.

“And that is a condition that I do not have in Superbike. Nor is it a situation that I can test in Moto2,” he added, referring to the fact that Pirelli is the supplier of both championships. “So, I cannot state that Pirelli will not have this problem at all.”

The rule obliges riders to keep the pressure of the front tyre above 1.80 bar (1.68 for the rear) for 60% of the laps in grand prix races, and 30% in sprint races, with penalties for non-compliance of 16 and 8 seconds, respectively.

“It is clear that we have a different construction, different materials, different operating pressures. I do not believe that a Pirelli works better at 1.4 than at 2.0 bar. Therefore, we probably will not have that type of problem,” Barbier said.

“But if we relate it to what the correct pressures are for Pirelli, we will have to see whether this becomes a problem when it drops below that range. So, for the time being, we are going to keep the regulation while hoping that we do not have to apply it. Afterwards we will decide whether to modify it or remove it.”

Joan Mir, Honda HRC

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images

Another difference is that, apparently, Pirelli tyres appear to be more stable when faced with changes.

“There is one thing I do see: the current supplier has a very significant sensitivity to pressure changes. If a certain level is exceeded, there is a great risk,” he added.

“With our tyres, we have a fairly wide operating pressure window. The manufacturer can choose. The behaviour of the tyre does not change too much between one pressure and another,” Barbier concluded, admitting that the negative image of seeing a rider removed from the podium an hour after a race has ended is something that “we cannot keep seeing”.

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– The Autosport.com Team