Miguel Oliveira has offered an insight into Pirelli behaviour ahead of MotoGP’s tyre switch in 2027.

While most of the current grid is still waiting for its first experience of the Italian rubber, Oliveira has gone the other way, moving from Michelin to Pirelli in WorldSBK.

The Portuguese rider, who won five MotoGP races with KTM before two years at Aprilia and last season at Yamaha, has adapted quickly, taking three podiums for BMW at his home round in Portimao.

“Working window”

“The biggest thing with the Pirellis is that you have a working window of 40° with the front tyre,” Motomatters.com quotes Oliveira as saying at Assen.

“So even if you ride the track on 10°C or 40°, you know the front tyre will warm up and will stay there.

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“The rear tyre changes in a normal way, but the general characteristic is that you feel you have the tyre supported just by the air and not by a stiff carcass and then the rubber.”

Those comments align with previous explanations from Pirelli Motorcycle Racing director Giorgio Barbier.

“For sure, we’ve got different casing, different dimensions, different compounds [compared to Michelin] and so that means how the pressure works inside our tyres will be different,” Barbier told Crash.net.

“For instance, we will have for sure a higher [working] pressure than what they are using now. The need for deflection they’ve got now… probably it’s not as necessary with our tyres.”

Oliveria added that, from his experience, it’s probably easier to move from Pirelli to Michelin than vice versa.

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Meanwhile, a WorldSBK team manager told Motomatters.com that the performance of the Pirellis doesn’t drastically alter due to pressure fluctuations caused by dirty air behind other bikes:

“The bike doesn’t change much if the [Pirelli tyre] pressure is 2.1 or 2.4 bar.”

The current Michelin minimum pressures are 1.8 bar for the front and 1.68 bar for the rear.

Full-time grand prix riders are expected to get their first outing on Pirelli’s 2027 MotoGP tyres during June’s post-race Brno test.

Meanwhile, Michelin is swapping with Pirelli by taking over as WorldSBK’s exclusive tyre supplier next season.

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