MotoGP, Motorsport, NEWS

Aerodynamic part or tire cooling?

14. March 2019

Andreas Denner

2 min read

Alleged tire cooling heats the mind

Aerodynamic part or tire cooling?

Already in the tests before racing season you could recognize in between new parts of the Ducatis. Once a cover of the front wheel rim was seen, which covered about a quarter of the rim and then was still a part of the bow of the machine in front of the rear wheel mounted. You could already see similar parts, but only in the rain. They should help to guide the whirled up water past the tire.

During the tests, however, they were used in the dry and also for the race in Qatar, the parts were mounted on all Ducatis. However, the competition has objected because they suspect that the parts generate down-force, so increase the contact pressure. According to the rules but should the no parts except the cover.

No aerodynamics – tire cooling

Ducati sells the attachments as tire cooling. They should not produce down force, just cool the tire. That bumps up a lot of teams. Especially at the race in Qatar the track does not get over 25 degrees warm. The whole weekend has been discussed to bring the race forward so the track is even warmer (race took place at night). One feared many falls because of too low temperature in the tires, straight in left turns. It does not really fit that Ducati then has to cool her tires …

Suzuki worked on similar parts, these were forbidden to them. Ducati, however, got permission for her system. They introduced it as a tire cooling system. Because of the protests, we now have to decide and define exactly what is allowed and what is not.