Pirelli allocation expanded for the unknown asphalt of Aragón

The MotoGP World Championship returns to Spain for the Aragón Grand Prix, which will take place next weekend at the MotorLand Aragón circuit. The track has recently been completely resurfaced and the abrasiveness of the new asphalt remains an unknown factor, despite the private tests carried out by some teams at the beginning of August.

For this reason, Pirelli has decided to add two development solutions to the standard rear options: the D0532 (soft) for Moto2™️, already seen in action in the German Grand Prix, and the C1096 (hard) for Moto3™️, also seen in some previous events, both more protected against wear and tear than other compounds.

In addition, to facilitate the work of teams and drivers, as already happened at Silverstone and Red Bull Ring, Pirelli has increased the number of tyres available for each of the front compounds, which go from the standard allocation of 6 to 7, in both classes.

Giorgio Barbier - Motorcycle Racing Director

Wider allocation due to new asphalt

[i"We know the Aragón circuit well, as we have been racing there with WorldSBK for several years, but the resurfacing of the track that has been completed recently shuffles the cards on the table and it will be important to understand how much the new asphalt can affect the performance of the tyres. At the beginning of August, an unofficial test was carried out and allowed us to get a first taste of the new surface and we saw that, compared to the past, it is more abrasive and aggressive on the tyres. It’s a fairly normal situation, considering that the track is not yet very rubbery. We can therefore expect to see some evolution over the course of the weekend, not only in terms of lap time performance but also in terms of wear, which could be higher than usual at the beginning and should progressively improve in the various sessions. To better address these conditions, we have added two development solutions that are more protected from wear and tear to the standard allocation, one for each class. In particular, the D0532 available to Moto2™️ is the solution that most riders liked in Germany and that performed very well on a circuit as severe as the Sachsenring. The very different layout of Aragón and the challenge posed by the new asphalt are an important test bed to gather further information on this development specification, should it be used. With more compounds for the rear and also more units for the front, we hope that the teams can focus their efforts on the solutions they prefer"[/i]

The Race Of The Tyres

· Expanded allocation: Moto2™ riders have the standard compounds for the front, SC1 (soft) and SC2 (medium), but in greater quantities: the number increases from 6 to 7 units for each of the two. For the rear, the quantities of the two standard compounds SC0 (soft) and SC1 (medium) are the same as the base allocation for the season, i.e. 8 pieces for each specification, to which are added 4 pieces of SC0 (soft) development in specification D0532. The allocation for Moto3™ follows the same logic: 7 units of each of the standard compounds, SC1 (soft) and SC2 (medium), for the front and 7 pieces each for the SC1 (soft) and SC2 (medium) rear options, while there will be 6 of the C1096 (hard). Given the presence of a third rear compound in both classes, riders will be allowed to use one more rear compound (10 instead of 9) than required by the regulations in the case of standard allocation.

· Evolution of the track: between April and June, the MotorLand Aragón track was completely resurfaced, after 14 years of use. Not many motorsport events have taken place on the circuit to date, so the new asphalt is not yet "rubberized", i.e. there is not that coating of rubber that cars and motorcycles deposit on the ground in their passes and that is integrated into the grain of the surface. With the intensive activity that will be done starting from Friday’s practice, and the consequent "rubberization", the characteristics of grip and abrasiveness will most likely change progressively until Sunday’s races. 

· Technical track: The MotorLand Aragón circuit is located not far from the Spanish city of Alcañiz, in a semi-desert area with a usually hot and dry climate. Just under 5,100 metres long, it has a total of 18 corners and is quite technical, but there is only one really violent braking point that could put the front tyre in crisis: turn 16, which comes at the end of the 968-metre-long rear straight. The stability and precision of the front, however, are called into question in the mixed part of the circuit, i.e. the first 10 corners, and in particular in the "sacacorchos" (translation: corkscrew): a downhill S that brings to mind epic overtaking and which leads into the very fast left-hand corners 10 and 11, where the rear tyre is required to perform great acceleration whilst leaning.