Kawasaki boss backs single tyre rule

Kawasaki’s MotoGP Technical Director Ichiro Yoda believes the switch to a single tyre rule in 2009 will allow factories to place more focus on machine development.

Yoda reckons competition between Michelin and Bridgestone has been so important that a large portion of testing is dedicated to tyre development.

Yoda said: “With tyre development, this job has too much importance in relation to our race programme. It takes a lot of time and resources for tyre testing.

“So we like the mono-tyre rule from point of view that it reduces costs and reduces testing and will allow us to concentrate on important areas of machine development.”

Yoda also offered his thoughts on Kawasaki’s decision to reject overtures from Michelin recently.

Kawasaki briefly discussed the option of quitting Bridgestone to run Michelin rubber in 2009 in a move that might have preserved tyre competition in MotoGP.

“One question we asked ourselves was ‘are we finding 100 per cent of the potential of Bridgestone tyres?’ The answer is no. If we went to Michelin we would still need to find 100 per cent potential of the tyre.

“It would be more risky to go to Michelin in this situation. We need to get 100 per cent potential from our bike first. Mr Tamba, our president, told us our first priority was the development of the bike, and to do this we needed to stay with Bridgestone. We agreed.”