While it’s obviously early days yet in the development of the 2012 machinery that will populate the upcoming 1000cc era of MotoGP, and most teams are surely holding back their riders’ efforts to avoid showing their hand this early in the game (as well as possibly wadding the factory’s hard-earned development efforts into a little ball), the times listed for the post-race test at the Brno circuit in the Czech Republic are interesting nonetheless. Besides some riders getting their first taste of the 1000cc prototypes, many continued development testing with the current 800cc machinery in a bid to improve their prospects in the latter half of the season. Bridgestone also brought in some 2012 development tires for the riders to test as well.
Repsol Honda's Casey Stoner...
Repsol Honda's Casey Stoner was the quickest rider at the post-race Brno official MotoGP test.
Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner put in the quickest lap of the test on the 1000cc RC213V, featuring an updated chassis utilizing feedback from his day on the bike back at the private Jerez test back in May. "Today was another good shakedown but we still have some work to do, we found a few positive things and confirmed certain directions to take and move forward," said Stoner. “We had a few small problems with chatter but it's something that shouldn't be too difficult to sort out through engine braking and engine management systems, which are areas we can definitely improve in, along with the chassis.
"The engine for me is fantastic, to ride the 1000 with more grunt and more power it's a lot of fun, it has incredible acceleration, most of the time too much.
We tested a couple of the new tires and had some issues, the traction didn't feel that great and they seemed to create a lot more chatter so we went back to the standard tires and the chatter seemingly disappeared. From the data we have from the first test and this test, we can go away and come back with the next step and take it from there."
Jorge Lorenzo showed that...
Jorge Lorenzo showed that the 2012 Yamaha 1000cc prototype is on the right track, turning the second-quickest time just a shade behind Stoner.
Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies showed that the 2012 Yamaha M1 prototype has immediate promise by posting lap times very close to Stoner’s, with Lorenzo trailing by only .085 seconds and Spies another .053 seconds behind. The Yamaha pair also tested new engine, chassis, and fairing components on their current 800cc machines, with Lorenzo posting a 1:56.727 lap that was only .474 seconds behind his 1000cc time. Spies also did some laps utilizing the updated 800cc parts, but the Texan ended his test day early at the halfway point due to the continuing issues arising from the pinched nerve in his neck.
"Today has been an exciting and busy day because it has been the first day riding the 1000cc bike, but also because we have made a small step with the engine upgrades for the 800cc bike,” said Lorenzo, who completed 58 laps on the 800 before running another 28 on the 1000cc bike. “We rode many laps non-stop, from 9:00 this morning to 5:00 this afternoon! I realized the 1000cc bike was incredible when I saw the power on the straight. I like this bike a lot and I wanted to have more laps but I have to still think about this season! I have been just one hour with our future bike! I can say that the next MotoGP season will be amazing, much more power, you go out of the corners sliding; I can’t wait!"
Spies was hoping for a bit more progress in the upgraded 800cc engine, and it appears he’s wishing for a little more to battle the dominant Hondas. “The 800cc upgrades we tested this morning were positive, hopefully there’s more in that direction in the future as well,” said Spies. “With the 1000cc bike, it was a pretty successful first day. We didn’t change much on it, pretty much just rolled out and did some laps to get as much data as possible. We made some small changes to see how differently it affected the bike compared to the 800.There’s more improvements to be made for sure but for the first day to go faster than the 800 was a surprise. My arm is feeling better and better, I’m getting a check up when I fly home to the US on Wednesday but should be fit and ready for Indianapolis.”
Dani Pedrosa got his first...
Dani Pedrosa got his first ride on the 2012 RC213V Honda at the Brno test, riding two of the 1000cc bikes with different setups during the test.
Dani Pedrosa also got his first ride on the RC213V (he missed the Jerez test due to injuries), with the Spaniard running two 1000cc machines with different setups to allow him more comprehensive testing program for the day. “I'm very happy to have tested the 1000cc because rain was expected, but it didn't arrive until the end of the day,” enthused Pedrosa. “My first impression in the morning was that the feelings were quite similar to those I had when I first came into MotoGP, you can feel the difference in torque and power. Perhaps I was still riding it with an 800cc style and I need a little more understanding again and try to ride it differently, but the bike seems to work quite well. We will make many modifications, so the final version will be very different to today's bike, but this is normal and the first impression is quite good. Compared to the 990cc I rode in 2006, it's very similar on the power side, but a little lighter in weight and behaviour. I tried one run with the prototype Casey tested in Jerez, and also the other one with some modifications and it was a bit better. With a new bike, electronics, engine, chassis, everything is not the best, but from my experience in the past with new bikes, the starting point is not so bad. We have to be very careful with the chassis because perhaps the tires next year are a little different in construction which will affect the chassis." Pedrosa was able to put in a best time of 1:57.264, putting him sixth on the timesheets.
Nicky Hayden did an initial morning run on the older GP11 machine before spending the rest of his day on the GP11.1, with the American finding the newer updated Ducati a definite improvement. Teammate Valentino Rossi spent the majority of his day focusing primarily on different riding positions and ride heights in an effort to improve front-end feedback on the GP11.1; Hayden went nearly a second quicker than yesterday’s race times, with a best of 1:57.533, while Rossi was 10th in the order with a 1:58.266 lap.
“Everything went pretty well today,” said Hayden. “We didn’t break any track records or anything, but luckily the rain held off. I did one run this morning with the GP11 just to start from zero and then went straight in on the GP11.1. Like at Laguna, I was immediately just as fast, but steadily through the day, I was quicker and quicker. Once again, the team worked like dogs, between working on my race bikes and preparing for the test. I enjoyed riding the bike, and it’s always nice to see progress and have a good feeling, I plan to ride it at Indy. My sister’s getting married this weekend, so we’ve got a pretty special two weeks coming up between that and my home GP.”
Rossi spent most of his time trying numerous setup changes to try and find a break in the Ducati’s handling dilemma. “It was a very busy day, not only because we did almost 75 laps, but also because we tried many changes in every outing,” said Rossi. “It’s not easy riding like that, as it requires a lot of concentration. We had some electronic updates that we still have to perfect, but we’ll return to those soon. Apart from that, we were thinking more toward the future, mainly trying different geometries, weight distributions, and settings that were a little strange, everything to remove any doubts and to understand some things about the GP11.1. I’d say it was a successful test, even if we sacrificed some performance since we had other objectives. We also tried some new tires from Bridgestone, and the first impression was good.”
Ducati Corse Technical Director Filippo Preziosi is taking a measured approach to the development of the GP11.1, looking at it as a development mule of sorts (the bike basically uses the same engine cases and chassis as the 1000cc prototype). “With Valentino, we decided to use this test day with the 800 in order to try very extreme setup solutions, with the goal of giving the engineers guidance for the next-generation bikes,” revealed Preziosi. “Therefore, we brought parts that allowed us to make much bigger adjustments than is normally possible. Practically, these are tests that help us to understand what happens when you move the center of gravity significantly or increase stiffness by an extreme amount, and so on. The mid-term goal is to build the base knowhow for the bike of the future. As for Nicky, after an initial run with the GP11, he preferred to work only with the GP11.1 to gather experience with its characteristics and work on a base setup.”
Mika Kallio continued development...
Mika Kallio continued development riding of the Suter 1000cc CRT prototype at Brno.
Especially notable in the test times was that of LCR Honda’s Toni Elias. The Moto2 champion has been struggling all season to find a setup that will put enough heat into the Bridgestone tires, and he has been finding himself at the bottom of the race order more often than not. However, his team has apparently found something that may have helped, as the Spaniard’s 1:57.903 is more than a second quicker than his race times.
The Marc VDS team was also present with former MotoGP rider Mika Kallio handing the development chores on the Suter 1000cc CRT prototype. Although Kallio was still a tad less than four seconds off of Stoner's pace, it's a marked improvement from the more than six seconds he trailed at the Mugello test.
MotoGP Brno test times:
1. Casey Stoner (AUS) Honda 1000cc 1:56.168
2. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Yamaha 1000cc 1:56.253
3. Ben Spies (USA) Yamaha 1000cc 1:56.306
4. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Yamaha 800cc 1:56.727
5. Ben Spies (USA) Yamaha 800cc 1:57.184
6. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Honda 1000cc 1:57.264
7. Nicky Hayden (USA) Ducati 800cc 1:57.533
8. Cal Crutchlow (GBR) Yamaha 800cc 1:57.591
9. Toni Elias (SPA) Honda 800cc 1:57.903
10. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Ducati 800cc 1:58.266
11. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati 1:58.387
12. Colin Edwards (USA) Yamaha 800cc 1:58.492
13. Mika Kallio (FIN) Suter 1000cc 2:00.144