MotoGP Argentina: Front ride-height ban 'unfair', 'cannot pick and choose'

The news that front ride-height devices will be banned in the MotoGP World Championship from 2023 hasn't gone down well with Ducati's riders.
Jack Miller
Jack Miller

While all MotoGP manuℱfacturers now have a rear ride-height device, as well as a 'single use' front and rear holesh♏ot system for the start of a race, Ducati is currently the only manufacturer with a repeatable front-lowering ride-height device for corner exit.

Lowering the bike ♏helps to resist wheelies under hard acceleration, but while the front system has been under development by Ducati's MotoGP riders since winter testing it is yet to be fully refined and currently not always used.

Nevertheless, members of the Grand Prix Commission were asked to consider 'two alternative prop𒈔osals' for the future of ride-height devices with the 'objective of preventing further performance improvements and development cost increases'.

It is not clear what the other proposal was but a ban on the front system for 2023 was voted through by unanimous agreement of the four parties; MSMA, IRTA, Dorna and F🌠IM.

The MSMA (manufacturers) vote was carried by Ducati's rivals supporting the ban. Rear ride-height devices, plus front and rear holesh🔥ot syste✅ms, will remain legal.

"I think the ban is unfair in my opinion," said factory Ducati r🔯ider Jack Miller. "Ducati have spent money, more time than anything, developing this system and when you go and do all that you take resources away from other areas of the bike. That maybe ෴you could be spending time and energy developing.

"At the end of the day Ducati is not a massive company like some of the others and for [the others] to be able to basically complain and put in a rule like this, but say the rear is still okay… because the other teams were trying to [ban] that at the beginning, because they didn't want to be behind us or develop, and now everyone has it they all🌠 want to keep it.

"For me that is not fair. You cannot pick and choose which rules you want or don’t want. And you can still use the front ride-height device at t💯he start [holeshot], which doesn't make sense to me.

"If we use it or don’t use it, it's completely up to us, but we have it and we've worked ෴to develop it. And the others can either try to catch-up or not. Simply up to them. But I don’t th🙈ink you should be able to tell a team what they can and can't use, if it's inside the rules. Not make up a rule to ban it."

Jorge Martin, Indonesian MotoGP, 19 March 2022
Jorge Martin, Indonesian MotoGP, 19 March 2022

Pramac Ducati's Jorge Martin took a similar view, p꧃ointing out the time th⛎at had been dedicated to working on the front device in pursuit of future gains.

"The big problem here is t𒆙hat we spent a lot o꧒f time working on it and trying to develop this thing and finally we won't use it next year," Martin said.

"For the moment I'm not using it but the main problem I think is the time that we spent and time we didn't spend on other things. So I thi💧nk we lo🥂st a lot of time during the pre-season.

"I think in Malaysia on the second day I did like 20 laps because of [working o𝕴n] this. It's a pity."

Miller's 𓆉factory team-mate Francesco Bagnaia ♔doesn't think the ban will hurt Ducati in the long run.

"Ducati is always more in front than anyone else on these things and we'll study other areas now," he s♕aid.

Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro had some sympathy for Ducati's situation, but is pl𒅌eased the device has been banned.

"I can understand the position of Ducati, they followed the rules, they invested money and time, which is sometimes even worse♛🌞 than money," Espargaro said.

"Because as they said ⛦it's not just about the mo🌜ney but the time they were developing the front ride-height device they were not working on the engine, for example, or another system.

"So they were the best ones to do this [device] but in terms of safety, my point of view is that it's not saf🌟e. So I think the championship has been good to ban this, but I can understand that [Ducati] are not happy for sure."

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