Today at Mugello, we're getting cranky in the box because yesterday Spring showers on-off on - off all fking day. You couldn't set anything up right. We rode a single glorious hour yesterday. Mind you guys are coming from really far away. 6 hour drives. 13 hours drives from other countries. Spending I don't know what to be here.
So finally our group goes out. I'm 3rd in line, some buddies behind me.
We rip down the meter wide cone section out pit lane and down the straight trying to get a little heat build up and slow way down for the first turn San Donato.
The guy in front of me on a nice BMW decked out in the latest, cruising up to the turn at about 45mph. (That's really slow)
-BIFF- slide - parts everywhere.
He leaned like 30 degrees and washed out.
Red flags, track closed.
Oil is all over the track.
Back to pit lane.
Everyone loves this guy who went out without tire warmers. Everyone spent at least $1000 for this day and the track is now closed because one A-Hole thinks, I'll go out without tire warmers and scrub-in some heat braking hard and BIFF.
The info that "it's the same compound on the shoulder." I don't know. That sounds like crazy to me. Marketing .........
I ran Rosso Corsa III on the track and after one session they were done. Plenty of tread but they get cooked hard and in casual street riding after I was sliding all over the place. They're just done. They can't handle getting that hot more than a few times. Recycled.
I've got SC's I rode last half of 2022 on track hitting 300kph, they sat all winter and now 2 session at Mugello yesterday and today. Just fine.
I had diner with a Pirelli track guy last night and a bunch of racers and instructors. The Pirelli management were asking him how they can sell more tires. The conversation was about costs getting insane and the complexities of understanding what's going to work best. People are quitting the sport because of it. There are a lot of compromises made trying to provide the highest possible performance which is impossible in every situation with the same product. Some products have overlapping abilities but the very highest performing products have the narrowest band width of use and set up. When you go slightly outside the situation OR set up required for top performance products, you are pretty much guaranteed to throw your bike into the trees. Tire pressure, pavement temperature, pavement texture, humidity, heat soaking temp and time before use, kinetic input consistency, warm-up routine, & riding input. Am I forgetting anything? At the top level race products, if one of those is too out of scope, yard sale.
There is a lot to learn and you can never stop learning in this sport. The more performance you go the more you have to study and ask around and get instruction on from the most top people you can find. Not whomever. I would never trust a marketing blurb or even a single source of info on a piece of equipment that my life is sitting on.
Try stuff but know the risk and the situation; realize you will absolutely hit unknowns so you better have some plan B's. As in, wait for screaming hot summer, go up the canyon on you slicks, round a corner and find a puddle, or some car oil... what you got for that?
