Did Michelin Favor Valentino Rossi? A New MotoGP Scandal on the Horizon

Valentino Rossi is back in the MotoGP spotlight following serious revelations that have reignited a debate dating back to the turn of the millennium. Edu Villodre, a member of Sete Gibernau’s team, has spoken about the preferential treatment Michelin allegedly gave the Italian champion. His comments back up accusations previously made by former rider and team manager Ruben Xaus about tyres made and shipped especially for the Doctor...

Sete Gibernau came close to spoiling Valentino Rossi’s celebrations on more than one occasion. In the early 2000s, the Spanish rider was one of the few capable of challenging the Italian for wins, finishing runner-up in the 2003 and 2004 seasons. But while they battled on track, things were happening in the garages that weren’t always visible from home.

Edu Villodre, who worked with Gibernau during that period, recounted on the 'Duralavita' podcast several incidents that led him to suspect Michelin wasn’t offering the two riders the same tyre-compound options. The alleged story is intriguing because in MotoGP, choosing one tyre over another can change the outcome of a race, especially back then, when Michelin and Bridgestone were battling it out on track. Riders tested different options on Friday and Saturday, compared how they felt and tried to find the best tyre for the race.

But there was a problem: the tyres available for testing were in very limited supply, and once they had run out, there wouldn’t be any more. Or at least, that was what Michelin said. "There were some internal disputes; very few people knew about them. There were still plenty of tyres left to test", Villodre recalls.

The problem arose when Sete Gibernau found a tyre he liked and wanted to use it in the race. He says that on several occasions they discovered there were no tyres left because they had been used up during the previous sessions. They had to find an alternative and hope it performed just as well. "We found ourselves in races where, on Sunday, Sete would say, 'Well, I want tyre B,' and, wow, there weren’t any left because he’d already used it on Saturday and there were no more. So he had to go with an alternative".

So far, it might seem like a simple matter of planning. If a tyre was used up on Saturday, it couldn’t be used on Sunday. What started to bother Villodre was discovering that Valentino Rossi had fitted exactly the tyre he’d been told was no longer available.

Gibernau would often ask which tyres his rival from Tavullia had used. And some of the answers left him completely baffled. "What tyres did Valentino use? And they’d answer, 'B.' But hadn’t you said there weren’t any left?", Villodre recounted. As he remembers it, the explanation they were given was that Rossi had kept a spare because he hadn’t used it during Saturday’s practice sessions. That meant the Italian could have it available on Sunday, while Gibernau no longer had that option.

But there’s another curious detail in his account. Villodre says he saw a small truck carrying tyres from Clermont-Ferrand, where Michelin had its factory, into the MotoGP paddock. "On Saturday night we’d see a little truck—I saw it, so I’m speaking from direct experience—bringing tyres from the Michelin factory for Sunday. New tyres. I’m not saying they made them on Saturday night, no, they’d already been produced; they had larger quantities at the factory. So if a team they’d chosen needed a certain number of tyres for Sunday, they’d bring them to that team...".

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