After 75 years, Dunlop has won its last grand prix

The 1991 season was one of the most entertaining of all time, because Rainey and Schwantz were spectacular to behold on Dunlop tyres, which allowed them to spin the rear tyre and execute lurid slides. Dunlop won 12 of the 15 races, with Rainey, Schwantz and Rainey’s rookie John Kocinski.

Those lurid slides relate to the words of Pecco Bagnaia’s crew chief Cristian Gabarrini, who a few weeks ago stated in this blog, “The physical limit of the bike is one thing; the mental limit of the rider is another – the physical limit can only make tenths if the rider is mentally ready to use it”.

Michelin slicks of that era gave more ultimate grip, but the grip the Dunlops gave was easier to use. In other words, physical and mental limits.

So even though you had less grip with the Dunlops, you were able to ride faster. Before you reached the Dunlop rear’s ultimate limit the tyre started to slide, so you could feel exactly what it was doing. Thanks to that you were confident enough to use all of its grip, to go to the absolute physical limit of the tyre, without fear of disaster.

Meanwhile the Michelins gave more grip, but they didn’t have that early warning system – motorcycle racing’s air-raid siren – that told you that you were entering the danger zone.

Instead you got grip, grip, more grip and more grip. And then nothing. All of a sudden you were past the absolute physical limit of the tyre and usually the first thing you knew about it was the tyre losing grip, the bike snapping sideways and then launching you to the moon as the tyre gripped again, triggering the whiplash effect feared by every motorcycle racer of the last few decades: the highside.

That’s why most riders were scared of using the last few percent of the Michelins and that’s the difference between physical and mental limits – the gap between the two could be called user-friendliness, or to be specific, rider-friendliness.

This difference even applied to Rainey and Schwantz, two of the bravest, most talented riders of all time. Even though they had slightly less grip than they’d had with Michelins in 1990, they demolished the lap record at many of the circuits they went to, their sideways motorcycles leaving arcs of smouldering rubber wherever they went.

Several 1991 GPs were staged at new or revised circuits, and yet Rainey and Schwantz broke lap records – most of them their own, established with Michelin in 1990 and 1989 – at eight circuits: Jerez, Misano, Hockenheim, Salzburgring, Assen, Circuit Paul Ricard, Donington and Brno.

And this was in spite of a 13% increase in the category’s minimum weight limit, from 115 kilos to 130. Perhaps the easy-sliding Dunlops helped Rainey and Schwantz turn their bikes better, which wouldn’t have done any harm to their lap times.

Nevertheless when Michelin announced it was returning to GPs in 1992 both Team Roberts and Suzuki ditched Dunlop and returned to the French manufacturer. Dunlop’s top finisher that year was Spanish Yamaha rider Juan Garriga, in seventh. And yet only three lap records were broken in 1992, confirming that although the Michelins had more outright grip they didn’t have more outright speed.

In 1993 Roberts decided to take the let’s-be-different route again, so he returned to Dunlop. The tyres were good, at least some of the time.

Rainey won the greatest of his 24 GP victories at round two at Suzuka, where he had his famous out-of-body experience (about which he didn’t speak publicly until after he had retired through injury at the end of that season).

“I remember being at the press conference afterwards and thinking, ‘I can’t tell them this – they won’t let me on the racetrack!’. What happened in the race was a really odd feeing, it was so unnatural. It was like I was looking down at myself going into the fast right before the hairpin and laughing, smiling and giggling. That moment is so clear to this day, I don’t know how or why it happened, but I know it did happen.

“That race was awesome, the best I’d ever done. I was having so much fun on the bike, really enjoying what I was doing, probably more than ever in my career. I’d gotten a bad start, Schwantz was riding good and was leading. I was thinking, ‘Man he’s gonna take off!’. Then I caught him, passed him and pulled out a bit. I was the only guy on Dunlops and my tyres went off a little, so I was able to slow down some, cool the tyres off, drop back to fourth, then make another charge towards the end.

‘Normally you can’t do things like that in a race, you’re normally flat out all the way, but I was able to exploit the advantage I had with the tyres, and that’s what won me the race. I knew I had a performance advantage with the Dunlops, just from the way I could manoeuvre the bike, put it in different areas of the corner and kinda intimidate everybody and enjoy that.

“It was like turning around and sticking your tongue out at them, that’s the way I felt. When you can think that way and you’re in a world championship race, when there’s so much on the line, I was just feeling like a kid. I was thinking, ‘This is not meant to be this much fun!’.”

Rainey had the advantage that weekend because Dunlop had a development base and racing programme in Japan, so its technicians made the perfect tyres for Suzuka.

At other racetracks he wasn’t so hot. At one race I was discussing tyres with a Team Roberts engineer. I asked him, “Is tyre design still a black art?” and he replied, “It is to Dunlop”.

Even so, Rainey, Team Roberts and Dunlop might have won that year’s championship if Rainey hadn’t crashed out of the Italian GP, round 12 of 14. The crash severed his spine, which ended his career and put him in a wheelchair.

In the years that followed Michelin worked hard to build some feel into its rear slicks, giving them their own early warning system. The tyres did get better in this respect, but they were never as friendly as the Dunlops had been.

One of Mick Doohan’s greatest skills, which was a major part of his total domination of 500 GPs from 1994 to 1998, was his ability to survive in the Michelin rear’s narrow zone of feel, where others feared to tread, because he had better sensitivity and reactions and more talent than his rivals.

Everything is relative of course. When Bridgestone entered the premier class at the turn of the century its strong point was its front tyre. And almost a quarter of a century later the Japanese company’s front slick is still the best front in motorcycle racing.

However, its rear slick was trickier than Michelin’s, which is why there were so many highsides in MotoGP after Bridgestone became the official supplier in 2009. Traction control caught most corner-exit highsides but there were numerous corner-entry highsides, because the tyre was difficult to get warm and keep warm.

After Dunlop’s fall from favour in 500 GPs it became the dominant tyre brand in 250s. Just as Dunlop won its last premier-class crown in 1991, Michelin won its last 250 title in 1992, with Luca Cadalora. The softer-construction Dunlops better suited the lighter, half-as-powerful 250s.

So when Moto2 became the new intermediate class in 2010 it seemed natural that Dunlop would continue as supplier. The company’s last grand prix winner was 18-year-old Italian Fermin Aldegeur, who topped the last four Moto2 podiums of 2023.

From the start of next season Pirelli will supply the entire WSB paddock and all of MotoGP, except the premier class. Michelin’s current contract expires at the end of 2026. While it seems inevitable that Pirelli will bid for MotoGP from 2027, would rights-holder Dorna be sensible to let one brand have so much power through supplying all of its championships?