Phillip Island 3rd day

Unofficial lap times

Max Biaggi (Honda): 1'30.21 (62 laps)
Colin Edwards (Honda): 1'30.45 (31 laps)
Sete Gibernau (Honda) : 1'30.60 (41 laps)
Nicky Hayden (Honda): 1'30.68 (83 laps)
Valentino Rossi (Yamaha): 1'30.80 (78 laps)
Alex Barros (Honda): 1'30.88 (74 laps)
Loris Capirossi (Ducati): 1'30.97 (56 laps)
Troy Bayliss (Ducati): 1'31.64 (68 laps)
Carlos Checa (Yamaha): 1'31.96 (92 laps)
Marco Melandri (Yamaha): 1'32.00 (80 laps)
Shane Byrne (Aprilia): 1'32.28 (67 laps)
Neil Hodgson (Ducati): 1'32.44 (64 laps)
Norick Abe (Yamaha): 1'33.76 (80 laps)

 

Go Shakey!

 

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5th-6th March.......Valencia.....Honda test +

26th-28th March......Catalunya.........IRTA test

30th March-1st April........Jerez............IRTA test
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And some news from Italy...
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It's more than a month to the beginning of motogp, but between Honda and
Yamaha there are already sparks. David Brivio, team manager of Yamaha,
accuses Honda again of making up the times of the recent tests , in order to
give the press false times.
According to Brivio, in Phillip Island, Edwards and Hayden have lapped
faster than what was stated. "Honda has a greater advantage that what has
been made out ".
The umpteenth chapter of the infinite rivalry between Honda and Yamaha. But
this time its David Brivio, team manager of Yamaha and the creator of
Rossi's transfer to yamaha, throwing an accusation at their long lasting
rivals. According to Brivio, Honda give the press lap times higher than they
actually do on the track , in order not to let their rivals know the true
potential of the yamaha.
In practice, the advantage of Honda over Yamaha in the recent tests in
Australia, Phillip Island, is very advanced compared to what Honda wants
everyone to believe. Brivio throws accusations: "Edwards and Hayden have
lapped faster" - the team manager says - "finishing the race simulation with
a greater advantage compared to what they want to be known". A bluff, a
pre-tactic.
Above all an accusation that makes the wait for the start of motogp more
vibrant.From april you are not able to bluff anymore. The argument will be
settled on the track..

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Max Biaggi:
the problems have stayed with me for the whole test and held me up in the
race simulation because i didnt want to lap in false conditions with lack of
wind.Here 9 out of 10 laps suffered from a strong wind and i wanted to
practise in race conditions.However i had to change bikes putting the same
tyres that i had on the other.Anyway,good times but maybe by the day of the
first race we will have different bikes.

Valentino Rossi:
the champion is smiling,is relaxed and is happy.
- Valentino, what do you think about these tests,it appears that they are
not going so bad...
"If i would have seen these results a month ago i would have thought i was
dreaming,but instead now i want to do more!,us riders are strange
people..today i did the first real race simulation and it wasnt bad seeing
that we are behind by 2 or 3 tenths,at the end we were down 5 seconds.Last
year yamaha were behind 25 seconds so there is an improvement. Im not saying
it was the riders fault,this is a new by that drives better,less tiring to
take it to the limits.It still remains more difficult to ride compare with
the honda but i think were going in the right direction.Now im waiting for
confirmations of the tests that we will do here in a weeks time and then in
the irta tests in barcelona and jerez.This last track in the most
interesting with the dips:if we manage to get this these points right it
means we are really growing.

Rossi passionate about the bike: "Ill explain how the m1 works.Compared with
the honda it requests a stronger force physically and mentally to go
faster,Its a real race bike,whilst the rcv seems like a product from the
assembly line,only that usually racebikes go faster!! We worked on making
the bike easier to ride,the first priority i indicated.Now we need to make
it do more,make it more agile otherwise we will be further behind.Sure,im
riding different now,with less slides,but this is because the honda has more
power on the rear wheel when entering a corner,lets say the m1 slides a
third of the times the rcv does.''

- The others are going fast...
"true but note that my time is still unbeaten....".

- Davide Brivio, Rossi's team manager confirms that the v4 big bang engine
is going ahead: "we are making a great progress,we have other examples of
this engine that they are trying in japan.Now the objective is to find more
HP,together with Marelli's intention,but we cant do too many things at the
same time.

Loris Capirossi:
I expected more but the bike is still new.Today i did alot of work,since the
morning.We were also fast,i did some interesting times.in the afternoon we
made some modifications.I know that everyone expected more,even me but i
think about it reasonably:we have 2 tests ahead before which we cannot go
back to the factory,its not a great amount of time to develop a bike thats
growing.However the mutual confidence that i have in ducati is still
here,they have a rational,they want to develop the bike and not go looking
for fast times immediately working method,they think ahead and this is what
i like.

- However the yamaha and honda are quite worrying
"true,honda put their bikes on the track and get good times without
straining.The bike is already ready,wheras ours,we have to work on it day
after day.Its because of this that we dont have a perfect setting.The yamaha
is a different story,there is rossi and he is giving it his best,there is
only him for now.Anyway today ilapped in the 30s also with the 16.5 front
tyre and this makes me feel calmer even if my bike has to become more
consistant.

Corrado Cecchinelli :what does he mean?do you feel deluded after these tests
in which there were some problems?
"my assessment of the situation is satisfying.Certainly we lack consistency
but we did times w with race settings and 16.5 race tyres,which makes the
situation more realistic.The others however are consistent,lets say that the
new gp4 has a higher potential compared with the old bike,that however had a
major development.

- Why do youre riders lap in difficulty by using the 16.5?
"because it changes the feeling the riders have with the front chasis its a
softer structure and has more grip,but its also less stable and harsh.

- Does it have problems?
"i always use the old bike as a comparison but you need to treat it like a
new bike and we have to learn and understand everything,mechanics and
riders.At its limit its different,maybe because it was designed to overcome
the defects of the 2003 bike.

- A bike that has always had an troubled distribution and its an ignorant
bike...

"Maybe because its the heir of the 888.Compared with honda thats a truthful
statment but for the riders our new bike is less demanding than the old
one.....now it is softer...

- Too much HP?
"Power is like money:you can never have enough.However we will work to make
it more usable.You can ride neater and more accurately by reducing the
power,but this is nonsense in the races.We need to find the best compromise
without reducing the performance.It makes me laugh to hear that according to
someone experienced in electronics you can just direct the horsepower
directly to the ground,like a touch of magic.Its not true!Consider that this
engine is still not finalised,there are new things tsill to come like the
air box and exhaust that will change the look of the bike.We hope that they
work well and we can test them before welkom.

 

Wasn't. Edwards scored fastest on day one, but Capiossi and Biaggi were
faster and posted faster times on days 2 and 3. Stick to your claim of
accuracy.

That I find strange, too. But this is just tests, and until they race we're
just wasting ink with speculation.

The only possible explanation is that Honda may be afraid people just see
the Honda's so far ahead that they lose interest in the '04 season right
away, but that seems silly. There are plenty of good guys on the Hondas, so
it should be a competitive and interesting season no matter what.

....pablo

 

My guess is that Brivio believe that Honda try to hide a big advantage. Two
reasons:
Make the chapionship look mor exciting than it actually will be.
More important. A small advantage can allways be eliminated by small
changes. A big advantage will need drastic changes. These changes take time.
If Honda can hide a big advantage until race start they win a lot of time
before all the others find out that they need to do drastic changes to their
bikes to level with Honda.
Btw. Hiding exiting new changes is not exactly new. If it's a speed/laptime
advantage or something else doesn't really matter.

Reminds me of a friend of mine standing in the pitlane next to the fastest
German WSS600 team (whats the guys name again?) reporting laptimes for the
unknown Norwegian over the intercom and on the sign board with great
enthusiasm that were .5 to 1.0 sec faster than the Germans. Whith worn tires
and setup testing his laptimes were of course far from that. Rather a couple
of seconds behind. But it initited some interesting activity in the pit lane
by the Germans

 

Yeah, I agree that the words comming from that direction seems strange, but
do you have a better sugestion?

are.

Do they? Do they ride with transponders all the time and are those times
available or do they have people taking lap-times for all the other
interesting riders?

From what you exlain here it sounds to me like Honda know how to play that
game and that they might try to pull off something similar this year.

/MBE