The two-day 2012 preseason test for the 1000cc MotoGP prototypes concluded on Wednesday with the Repsol Honda pair of Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner leading the way. While it’s still very early in the development process and most of the lap times aren’t really representative because many rider/bike pairings are new, the test still showed how far along the Honda RC213V is compared to the rest of the field. Still, both Stoner and Pedrosa (as well as all the Honda riders) complained of chattering with the new 2012 Bridgestones, and that will be the focus of Honda’s development leading up to the February Sepang test next year. Ben Spies and Cal Crutchlow were closer to the Hondas than expected after the first day (where Spies was closest non-Honda rider at more than half second off Pedrosa’s first day time), but judging by Spies’ comments, he’s hoping that more performance is on the way from Yamaha by the time the teams get back to Malaysia in three months.
Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa...
Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa ended up with the quickest time during the two-day MotoGP test of the 1000cc bikes at Valencia.
“We’ve made some improvements on the bike, especially the front end, which is a little better,” said Pedrosa. “But still we have to focus on the entry of the corner, the braking, and the exit, the new tires are a little bit more moving out of the corners, and that makes the bike a little more unstable. Basically we've been working on the engine mapping, to better manage the power of the bike, and with the rear shock. The changes we've done on the bike from Brno to here have been positive and we finish the year with a good feeling. It will be interesting to go to Sepang and continue working under very different conditions, with harder tire compounds and a much higher track temperature.”
MotoGP World Champion Casey...
MotoGP World Champion Casey Stoner was second quickest at Valencia, complaining of tire chatter with the new 2012 Bridgestone spec tires.
Stoner was fairly happy with the results, and confident that the kinks will be worked out by the time he gets back to work in February—when he will be a new father as well, as he and his wife Adriana are expecting their first child that month. "Everything has gone pretty well to be honest, on the first day we just needed to compare the bike with the one in Jerez and the Czech Republic,” related the 2011 MotoGP World Champion. “There’s been a couple of small improvements especially in terms of the bike working with the new 2012 tires. We found the front tire gives us quite a lot of chatter, and it’s something we’re trying to improve. The new bike helped with that slightly, but we'd still like to improve that point a little more. Something we've had since last season with the 800s is a lack of feeling and also some chatter coming from the rear on the way into the corner, which is something we still need to improve with the 1000 but we believe we know a couple of directions to go in to improve the situation. But overall the test’s been pretty positive, we didn’t have a lot of things to test, so we just went out there and got a comparison of the bikes; a few other small things, trying to understand how to get the tires to work a little better with our bike. But more or less that was it, there wasn’t too much else for us to test, so we kept it nice and short.”
Yamaha Factory Racing's Ben...
Yamaha Factory Racing's Ben Spies was close behind the two Hondas, and had to shoulder the testing load due to the absence of Jorge Lorenzo.
With Lorenzo missing the test due to his still-healing finger, Spies bore the brunt of the testing workload, turning a total of 117 laps over the course of the test. “Yeah, been a long two days,” said Spies. “We had a lot of work to do with Jorge not being here, but we got through everything. I think we got the guys working in the right direction; we’re a long way away from Qatar and what we’ll be racing with, but I think we’ve got a good idea of what we need to do and what we need to work on. And we’re still not so far off, we’re still pretty close, but we do need to do a bit of work, but also there’s a lot more potential in what we have, we just got to make it better. So we’ll just let them go back to Japan now to work on it for a couple of months and go to Malaysia and hopefully have a better package.”
When asked what he wanted improved, Spies replied, “As a rider, a bit of everything, as always. Working on the wheelie for us has always been a problem, even with the 800. With the 1000, it’s a bigger problem, it’s got more power. The front of the bike, the handling’s great, no problem with that. Just working a little bit with traction, the electronics, and a little bit less wheelying, and that’s about it.
“We weren’t too far off, we were closer than we were with the 800s here, I think, so it wasn’t too bad. And we never—(Pedrosa and Stoner) might not have either—but we never put the bike on the limit, I never had a moment where I almost crashed, so was riding quite comfortable. Hopefully they were riding on the limit when they put those times down (laughs). So we’ll see, we’ve got a lot of work to do, and I’ve got confidence in Yamaha that they can make it better.”
Valentino Rossi was guarded...
Valentino Rossi was guarded in his first appraisal of the new aluminum twin-spar perimeter frame on the Ducati GP12, and ended up sixth quickest.
A lot of attention was focused on Valentino Rossi and the new aluminum twin-spar frame on the bike that is now being labeled the “GP Zero” by pundits after Ducati MotoGP technical director Filippo Preziosi’s comment that the former GP12 is now “test bike number zero” because of the new chassis, which replaces the previous carbon monocoque design that is now used (in aluminum form) on the Ducati 1199 Panigale. While many are certainly hoping that the new frame would be the magic pill that would transform Rossi and the rest of the Ducati riders’ fortunes, Preziosi cautioned that this chassis is only a starting point, and that the “bike you see will not be the one which appears on the starting grid at the season opening race next year.”
Rossi was guarded about his first ride with new machine. “This testing was very important because we had our 1000 on the track with the other factories,” said the nine-time World Champion. “We had two good days of sunshine, so we are lucky. We do a lot of laps. For sure this 1000 is a lot more fun to ride because you can get sideways more, it’s better than the 800, so is a good base for start. But we have to work, we have some problem, so now is a crucial moment from now to February. The frame isn’t bad, but it needs work. We have to improve the braking, because I need to brake harder and later, and we need to improve traction under acceleration. Filippo has many ideas, and now we have a little time to apply them before next year’s tests.”
Most of the MotoGP seats have settled in, with Alvaro Bautista not waiting any longer for Suzuki to announce its 2012 MotoGP intentions (the company reportedly has until tomorrow to let the FIM/Dorna know whether it will compete next year), and signing with the San Carlo Honda Gresini squad to take the place of Hiroshi Aoyama, who is headed to World Superbike. With the MAPFRE Aspar team forgoing leasing Ducatis next year in favor of a CRT effort, Hector Barbera has signed with the Pramac Racing Ducati team. Andrea Dovisioso got his first laps on the Yamaha M1 during the test, and Moto2 World Champion Stefan Bradl impressed in his test ride on the LCR Honda, with reports saying that he may change his mind and move to MotoGP next year.
Valencia MotoGP post-season test lap times:
1. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) 1:31.807 Honda
2. Casey Stoner (AUS) 1:31.968 Honda
3. Ben Spies (USA) 1:32.338 Yamaha
4. Cal Crutchlow (GBR) 1:32.550 Yamaha
5. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) 1:33.256 Yamaha
6. Valentino Rossi (ITA) 1:33.332 Ducati
7. Karel Abraham (CZE) 1:33.433 Ducati
8. Hector Barbera (SPA) 1:33.648 Ducati
9. Alvaro Bautista (SPA) 1:33.814 Honda
10. Stefan Bradl (GER) 1:34.142 Honda
11. Kousuke Akiyoshi (JPN) 1:34.546 Honda
12. Franco Battaini (ITA) 1:34.840 Ducati
13. Carmelo Morales (SPA) 1:35.911 BMW/Suter
14. Ivan Silva (SPA) 1:36.695 BQR Inmotec
15. Yonny Hernandez (COL) 1:37.279 BQR FTR Kawasaki
16. Federico Sandi (ITA) 1:38.680 GAPAM