“Where would Valentino Rossi have ended up in the 2015 MotoGP season had he been ten seconds faster in every race,” is a question posed by Ohlins race engineer Thomas Alatalo when asked about the benefits of using the firm’s carbon forks.

It may sound like a bold statement, but Ohlins believe that with the correct setup, the 10 per cent weight loss achieved by using carbon fork tubes over their aluminium counterparts is worth ten seconds over a race distance…

Honda and Yamaha are recent adopters to the new/old technology. Ducati have been using them since the beginning of the year, Marquez won with them in Brno and Rossi will use them from Austria after testing at Brno.

In the MotoGP title chase every detail is important and it’s not by chance that Honda and Yamaha started to test the carbon fibre forks from Brno, following the path opened by Ducati. There has been plenty of speculation regarding the benefits but it is not a new technology.

Japanese companies were already testing a carbon outer tube in the mid-1980s and Ohlins used them from 1998 to 2004 with Aprilia in 250cc and Ducati in MotoGP.

What happened between then and now? “The manufacturing process was very complicated and expensive, so the development continued in other directions,” Alatalo told bikesportnews.com at the Red Bull Ring. “We developed suspension in many other areas like the spring system, the damping system, but the focus was not the mechanical properties of the material.

“In the last couple of years, the requests of the manufacturers went more in this direction, so we started to test with new technologies.

“The main reason is weight reduction,” continued Alatalo. “And we have achieved a weight reduction equal to around 10 per cent of the weight of the forks. Thanks to the new manufacturing technologies, the price is more attractive.”

A reduction of 400 grams is attractive to those manufacturers, like Ducati for example, that have the weight reduction as one of their priorities. But it’s still not cheap…

“The carbon fibre forks used to cost more than £10,000 per tube and a rider needs around 20 samples per season to cover every option. Today the price is less expensive, but still important, let’s say more than the triple of an aluminium fork.”

Ohlins started internally testing a new carbon fork a couple of years ago and after some development, offered them to all their MotoGP customers.

“Ducati were the most interested and wanted to use them from the beginning of the year. They tested in the winter and as there were no negative feedback, they used them from the Qatar race onwards. Ducati approached this evolution in a more scientific way: they know the forks a lot of weight that is high and far-forward.”

The Honda RCV213V of Marc Marquez was equipped with the carbon forks for the Brno race and Rossi tested them at Brno, commenting: “The Yamaha is much more agile with the carbon forks.”

“This is easy to explain,” said Alatalo. “Because the bike loses a lot of weight which is higher and more forward, so it becomes easier in the change direction.”

However, Vinales was not comfortable because the bike is less stable. “Maverick feels the reduction of weight so if he wants to use them in the future they need to also to work on the setup to compensate.”

Dani Pedrosa said that the carbon forks have a great potential but he wants to test them more.

“From our point of view it is still a developing item. We are studying the data with the teams and there are more evolutions to come,” said Alatalo. “Honda and Yamaha didn’t want to use it in the racing season. Every manufacturer has a different development program and priorities.

“Valentino did a good lap time in Brno so I think he is going to use them. Marc Marquez used already in Brno race. Some riders see the potential of the less weight so they try again with some modifications in the setup.”

What about Suzuki? “They have them available and they may use them soon.”

How can the weight reduction of 400 grams, can be translated in terms of seconds gained? “If you can offer to a Formula One team a weight reduction of ten per cent from the suspension, then they will be really happy because they have some calculation engineers that can tell you how many seconds they can gain in the race, just for the weight that we take out,” said Alatalo.

“If you consider track by track, how many times you accelerate from low to high speed and you take out this amount of weight. When everything is perfect you can take out about 10 seconds from the race time.

“When everything is perfect, I mean, not only the carbon forks, but also the right setup, so that also riders like Pedrosa or Vinales like it, you can take out about ten seconds from the race time.

“Think if Valentino was ten seconds quicker in every race, where he would have ended up at the end of the 2015 season?”