Phillip Island’s new asphalt and most demanding circuit for tires

Phillip Island is a very demanding circuit, even more so after the resurfacing

“Phillip Island is a circuit that we know very well, in fact we have been racing there for many years with both the Superbike World Championship and the Australian Superbike National Championship. We last raced there with WordSBK in February this year, so already with the new asphalt, and we can only confirm that this is an extremely demanding track for tyre manufacturers and the resurfacing seems to have made it even more aggressive by increasing its levels of abrasiveness and severity. It must be said that in February the resurfacing works had just been completed and therefore the asphalt was still fresh and a little dirty, in recent months the situation may have improved a little but the levels of abrasiveness still remain high. Beyond the new asphalt, this circuit has always been very demanding also and above all because of its particular layout, with almost all left-hand corners resulting in high thermo-mechanical stress for tyres. What we don’t know is how our tyres will behave with Moto2™ and Moto3™ because this is the first time we have come to Australia with these classes, although we imagine that the class that will put the most stress on the tyres will be Moto2™. For this reason, in agreement with IRTA, the duration of the Moto2™ free practice on Friday morning has been extended to 15 minutes, for a total of 55 minutes, to facilitate the work of teams and riders and allow them to perform long runs with both rear solutions. Given the uniqueness of this circuit, we have in fact decided to provide for the rear the development soft D0532, already used at Sachsenring and Aragón, and the SC3, which is the hard solution of the range for Moto2™ while the Moto3™ riders will have the medium SC2 as a softer solution and the C1096, a development hard already worn in some GPs,  as an alternative”.

· Specific allocation: the riders of both classes will have standard front tyres, soft SC1 and medium SC2, with 8 tyres for each solution; therefore, 2 units more than the standard allocation of 6.  In Moto2™ the rears are different from the standard allocation: there will be the development D0532 in 8 tyres per rider as a soft option and six hard SC3 units as an alternative. In Moto3™ the medium SC2, which is usually the hardest version, will be the softest available to the riders while the alternative will be represented by the C1096 development hard, both in 8 units per rider. Given that in both classes the slick compounds remain two at the front and two at the rear as required by standard allocation, the number of tyres that each driver can use over the weekend remains unchanged: 8 front and 9 rear for a total of 17 tyres per weekend.

· Layout and tyre stress: Built in 1956, Phillip Island is a circuit with a fascinating layout with a succession of fast, wide-ranging corners broken up by just two hairpins, where there is usually a lot of overtaking. The only straight of a certain length, the one in front of the pits, is downhill and very high top speeds are reached. The tyres are subjected to strong and constant thermo-mechanical work, especially on the left side, and there is an overheating of an area but at the same time there is also a maximum lean angle that generates different drift forces with very strong torsion and oblique work.
 
· The Southern Loop: A peculiarity of the Philip Island circuit is the famous Turn 2, called the Southern Loop. It is a very long curve that also has a medium-wide radius that allows you to travel at full throttle, with a fixed lean angle and for a long period of time. In these conditions, the tyres are forced to work for some time with mechanical efforts localised on a small strip of tread and, precisely in that area of continuous use, there is a rapid increase in temperature that can cause loss of grip on the asphalt which, in turn, causes a further increase in temperature due to friction and an abundant removal of material. There is therefore an exponential and uncontrolled increase in temperature capable of generating a thermal decomposition of the compound.