The British Superbike Championship is already on this path.
Like MotoGP, the BSB is a special tire championship, using the same Pirelli slicks as the Superbike World Championship.
Unlike MotoGP, the BSB takes place primarily on old-school circuits – such as Brands Hatch, Cadwell, Oulton Park etc – where lack of run-off tracks is already a real problem.
For this reason, BSB has removed Pirelli's stickiest rear slick from the championship's 2024 tire allocation to reduce cornering speeds. In addition to being a qualifying tire, the SCX Supersoft is also used in races that typically last 25 to 30 minutes.
Less grippy tires don't make the race more dangerous – riders will crash no matter how much grip you give them! – but less grip means riders will go slower if they crash, making them less likely to hit the track limits.
“We don’t need to go any faster, so we’re dialing it back a bit,” says BSB race director Stuart Higgs. “We are doing a few things, like lowering the speed limit again, but the crucial thing is the tires. We don't need Banzai tires for laps, we need something that's predictable and durable. We don't need a super, super, super edge grip because if he lets go, we're screwed.
Cornering speeds in MotoGP could be reduced by Michelin limiting edge grip or Dorna mandating narrower rims
Michelin
“As the tires get better and the drivers take corners faster, accidents occur at different points in the corner. When planning the run-out for a corner, consider head-on situations, accidents in the middle of the corner, and the run-out tapers at the end of the corner. But as the corner exit turns further and further around the corner and the drivers get faster and faster, at some point the two points meet where the barrier runs parallel to the track again.
“The SCX has been used in races almost everywhere, but now we are switching to the SC0 because we need to scale things back and are not chasing lap records.”
Although MotoGP is working on reducing things in terms of engine size, aerodynamics, etc., it still needs to address the tire situation.
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