Danny Aldridge
We’ve already written about Yamaha’s debut of a new fairing designed to provide down-force in compliance with MotoGP’s ban on external wings beginning this year. You can see a comparison photo that illustrates what Yamaha has done below.
A few days ago, we also wrote about the circumstances existing before the first race in Qatar later this month, i.e., that most teams are still hiding their new fairing designs prior to the forced introduction of them at the Qatar Grand Prix — the deadline is 5:00 p.m. on the Thursday prior to the March 26 race.
Now, Crash.net has published an interview with MotoGP technical director Danny Aldridge, a man with a background in aviation engineering, who must personally approve the new fairings used by each team. We suggest you take a look at the full interview, but here are some highlights.
Aldridge is surprised that Yamaha has already shown their first design, although some of the other teams have shown him designs in private. The fairing design used at Qatar on March 26 can only be changed one time thereafter during the 2017 series. He also talks about the primary concern with the incorporation of aerodynamic down-force into the fairing which is safety of riders who could be injured (even impaled) by the external wings permitted last year.
So watch for photos of the new fairing designs from the various manufacturers as they hit the internet later this month. Indeed, some of the new fairings may debut this weekend during the final, official MotoGP test (also at Qatar).
Yamaha has already shown a new fairing with wings inside the outer edge (photo at right).
I wonder if Suzuki will pass muster. They are using a pretty lame disguise on theirs.
It’s hard to believe the factories haven’t already considered and dismissed this concept before.
The external winglets showed measurable improvements but unless Dorna relaxes their restrictions internal ducting will probably have a negligible effect on downforce and traction.
…Meanwhile, The Michelin Man works feverishly to appease everyone, as most teams are now complaining that the soft front tires don’t last long enough, and the hards take too long to come up to temperarure.
Make the bikes naked….only way to get rid of this nonsense.
Just bring back dustbins.
Yamaha is probably taking one for the team by publishing photos to gauge the reaction to this new gimmick.
Just think. Future street bikes are going to be even wider and more easily damaged. What progress!
Why not do away with fairings altogether? The resulting slower speeds will be safer and watching the riders try to hang on down the straights will be more entertaining!
I can see by the lack of comments, nobody cares.
I think what you see, is what it’ll be. No big secret and not that many ways to modify the fairing to create desired down force. They’ll all look about the same. Maybe.
re: “So watch for photos of the new fairing designs from the various manufacturers as they hit the internet later this month…”
…and then after the first crash, are promptly stripped off the bike, and resigned to being just a “footnote in MotoGP history”.
but no worries, it’ll be fun while it lasts. the day “Motogeep” fails to entertain is the day Dorna shutters the home office.
They would be crazy to enter a race without a lot of laps knowledege of how the fairing is going to work/affect riders. The only place to get that knowledge is in actual official practice. They only have one more practice before Qatar rught? I doubt they will wait until the Qatar race to unveil their new fairings. I expect we will see them at the next official practice.
Are they not allowed any non-official practice or development? Like at private test tracks, etc?
There are restrictions on how much time the factory riders can test during the offseason but those rules don’t apply to factory test riders.
While this is true, I can’t imagine any of the factory riders being handed a bike at Qatar and told ” here, the test rider says it works and handles great, so go have a great race.”
I’ll show you mine if I can see yours.
I think Yamaha threw that out for intel gathering and as a distraction. I wouldn’t be surprised if what they actually use is a bit different than what you see. Maybe it gave some teams the “wrong” or “bad” information on how to go about it, but for sure, I think all the bikes will have their own method for controlling air and downforce…
+1 I think it is misinformation.
re: “Maybe it gave some teams the “wrong” or “bad” information on how to go about it”
gotta scam somethin’.