Mastering MotoGP in Austria: “It’s scary, but you get used to it”

Wheel spinning when accelerating (in any gear!) and front wheel locking (at 305 km/h!) are the challenges that drivers have to deal with.

Surely that's the purpose of traction control – to prevent wheelspin? Yes, but when traction control kicks in, the throttle valves close, reducing torque to the rear wheels and affecting acceleration. Not good for lap times.

So Bagnaia spent the weekend with his Ducati crew reducing traction control, not increasing it, because the human hand can still be better than a small black box.

“The rear was spinning a lot, so I tried to wait with the throttle until I found good traction – at the exit of turns 3 and 10 [onto the back straight and start/finish] were particularly difficult to control,” said Bagnaia after his 25th MotoGP victory. “We worked a lot on the electronics and took a step by removing a lot of traction control so that I had better control over it and could control it more easily.”

Bagnaia also used his mind to control turning even better, forcing his Ducati GP24 to maintain a certain lean angle on the straights, which puts more of the rear tire on the road and improves grip.

And he also used his meticulous braking precision to avoid the head-on crash that would have knocked him out of the sprint at Silverstone.

“It's a little easier to handle here because you can use the rear brake more to get a little rear wheel slip before cornering,” he added.

The problem of the rear wheel pushing the front was more of a concern in Saturday's sprint, which he also dominated, as he used a soft slick on the rear that had more grip, which exacerbated the pushing problem and gave his front tire a particularly rough time.

“The problem with the front tire [in the sprint] came from behind because in turns 3, 4 and 10 I always felt the rear pushing the front. This season the rear tyre is impressive, unbelievable! We are super fast everywhere – the fastest lap in the sprint was two tenths slower than the 2023 pole position, so it's unbelievable.”

Title rival Jorge Martin came to Austria three points ahead of Bagnaia and left the race five points behind with nine Grands Prix to go. He too was under the lap record but, although he stayed close for a while on Sunday, he just couldn't keep up with Bagnaia's blistering pace.

“Pecco seems to be a bit better at the moment – ​​when I was second I lost the chance to win,” said Martin, who could not resist his GP24 colleague after taking the lead on the first lap – both desperate to be in the lead so that their front tyres do not overheat in the slipstream.

“We have a lot of front-lock here, but we're used to it,” explained Martin. “Behind Pecco it was even worse because everything gets so hot. It's kind of weird and unsettling to brake and feel like you're going to crash all the time, but we're controlling it.”

That's how optimistic the professional racing drivers are! On Friday morning, rookie Pedro Acosta crashed at 300 km/h when he braked at the end of the back straight and his front tire locked because he allowed it to cool down too much.

When someone asked him if he thought his accident was dangerous, he replied: “Everything in life is dangerous – maybe the next time you cross the road you'll be hit by a bus.” This is how racing drivers justify the dangers of their profession.

Two-time Silverstone winner Enea Bastianini scared himself with some front-end blockages in Sunday's race and decided a lonely third place was good enough. “It was too difficult to have everything under control,” he said.

Jack Miller was aiming for his best result since Portugal – battling with Marco Bezzecchi and his Red Bull KTM teammate Brad Binder for fifth place – until he slipped. Chasing two riders in close quarters, the temperature of his front tyre rose to unfathomable levels.