Revealed: Michelin plan to tame Phillip Island resurrected for Australian MotoGP

With Bridgestone, Dunlop and Pirelli all badly beaten when resurfacing at Phillip Island, all eyes will be on Michelin in this weekend’s Australian MotoGP.

The last time Phillip Island was resurfaced, before the 2013 Grand Prix, a shorter race distance and a mandatory pit stop were required due to overheating Bridgestone rubber.

The Moto2 and Moto3 classes also held short Grand Prix races due to their Dunlop tires suffering similar problems.

The latest resurfacing for 2024 surprised Pirelli during the WorldSBK season opener in February, which again required shorter races and a mandatory pit stop to ensure tire safety.

Now it’s Michelin’s turn to tackle the new asphalt at this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix.

As in Aragon, the French company does not have MotoGP data for the new asphalt.

As such, Michelin will offer a wider range of rear tires – three options instead of the usual two – with the medium and hard tires featuring a reinforced heat-resistant construction.

“We’re looking forward to discovering the nature of Phillip Island’s new asphalt,” said Piero Taramasso, Director of Two Wheels at Michelin Motorsport. “As we have not had the opportunity to do any testing before, we will bring an expanded allocation of tires.

“For the front we will have the same compounds (soft, medium and hard) as in 2023, but for the rear we offer our partners three options instead of the usual two.

“We will have the Soft compound, with its usual internal structure, but also two tires with Medium and Hard compounds, which benefit from a reinforced construction that we already saw at the end of September in Mandalika (Indonesia).

“We made this decision based on the circuit configuration and the restrictions imposed on the tires.”

Last year’s Australian MotoGP saw the Grand Prix race brought forward to Saturday afternoon, in place of the Sprint, due to the extreme weather forecast for Sunday.

The storm arrived after the warm-up, canceling plans for the rescheduled Sprint.