Reached in the paddock at Catalunya, site of this weekend’s MotoGP race, Nicolas Goubert, Michelin’s director of motorcycle racing, commented on the challenge presented by the just-completed repaving of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca: “That could make it a difficult weekend for all the tire companies. A new surface means we have to start from scratch. The old surface was quite slippery and the new surface will be much more abrasive, because all new surfaces tend to be very abrasive. When they resurfaced Phillip Island a few years ago we could only get a handful of laps out of the tires, but that was during testing, so we were able to create suitable tires for the race. All we can do is take a wider range of tires to be prepared for any conditions because it’s impossible to say how strong a compound we will need.”