Michelin has welcomed new regulations designed to maintain competition between tire manufacturers in the MotoGP World Championship. The two sets of rules, concerning tires and testing, come into effect on January 1, 2007. The tire regulations, the first such restrictions to be introduced to Grand Prix motorcycle racing, were formulated following discussions between the three tire manufacturers involved in MotoGP. “We are happy with the new rules,” says Nicolas Goubert, Michelin’s director of motorcycle racing. “The tire agreement is a very good agreement, especially if you look at what is happening in other major motorsport championships, particularly in Formula One switching to a single tire maker rule.” “The most important aspect of the new rules is that they ensure we will be able to continue competing with other tire companies. Carmelo Ezpeleta (CEO of Dorna, the MotoGP rights holders) played a major role in this. He asked the tire companies to come up with a compromise that would be acceptable to all of us because he wanted different tire brands to continue fighting on the racetrack. The major motorcycle manufacturers also pushed hard to keep different tire brands involved because they understand that the technology derived from MotoGP can be used on streetbikes, so this agreement is also very good for the end-user. “Once the objective to keep everyone involved was clear, the second most important point was to ensure that we don’t have too much cost inflation, because costs can escalate when you have major manufacturers competing in a highly prestigious series. In this respect, the most important factor was to reduce the possibility of test teams to test tires. From next year test teams can only run at official IRTA tests plus one track during the season and one track during the off-season. “The third point was to ensure that there wouldn’t be more and more testing for the MotoGP teams, so Dorna has limited winter testing to seven sessions, organized by IRTA. This is good, especially for safety, because there will be full medical backup at these tests. During the season the only testing will be done immediately after GPs, with the teams staying on to test at the same track. This is something we suggested a few years ago and is very efficient results-wise, safety-wise and cost-wise. It’s another good move. All these restrictions ensure there will be more equal competition across the grid because the factory teams won’t be able to test more than the non-factory teams. “The fourth and final point was limiting the amount of tires riders can use during a race weekend. The limit will be 31 tires per rider, which isn’t much of a reduction from what we currently use but will prevent any increase, especially with regard to qualifying tires. The new rules don’t require all the tires we supply to be the same so we can work even harder than we do now at tailoring tires to suit each rider, because riding style is so crucial to tire choice. Our riders will be heavily involved in the process of having tires tailored to their individual needs. “As always, we will support the MotoGP series as much as we can, supplying tires to a respectable number of teams as long as they want to keep working with us. We are ready to supply up to 50 percent of the grid. “The tire regulations take effect from the start of next year and there is no time limit to the rules, but if the tire manufacturers decide that a certain aspect of the rules needs to be fine-tuned, we can agree to change them for the following year.” Michelin has scored more than 350 victories in premier-class motorcycling racing since 1973 and has won 25 500/MotoGP World Championships over the past 30 years, including a clean sweep of the last 14 titles. During the past decade the French company has enjoyed a race win rate of almost 95 percent.