Graphic: Backfire Racing.
MotoGP riders don’t have unlimited access to tires across a race weekend. A strict allocation system forces teams to plan carefully which sets get used when.
A Limited Number of Sets
Each rider is given a fixed number of front and rear tires for the entire weekend, split across several compound options ranging from soft to hard. Once those sets are used, there are no replacements, so every practice run has to be weighed against how many tires remain for qualifying and the race.
Choosing Compounds Under Pressure
Riders and their teams must commit to specific tire choices for the race itself well before lights out, based on practice data and weather forecasts, and cannot change compound strategy mid-race the way some other series allow. Making the wrong compound call can mean fighting a motorcycle that doesn’t have enough grip in the closing laps.
Wet Tire Allocation
A separate, smaller allocation of wet-weather tires is also provided, and if rain arrives unexpectedly, riders can find themselves short of options for both practice learning and the race itself. This scarcity adds real risk to any decision to sample wet tires early in a weekend that later turns dry.
Why This Differs From Other Series
Unlike qualifying formats covered in A Beginner’s Guide to MotoGP, tire allocation isn’t about grid position, it’s about pure resource management across an entire weekend, and it disproportionately punishes teams that don’t plan practice sessions carefully.
The Strategic Payoff
Teams that manage their allocation well arrive at the race with full knowledge of how their remaining tires will perform, while teams that burned sets carelessly in practice are sometimes forced into race-day gambles they didn’t want to make.
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