Honda 2011 MotoGP rider line up test new race equipment at Valencia
. By Bikeland Staff
The MotoGP teams and riders began 2011 pre-season testing at Ricardo Tormo Circuit at Valencia today just two days after the 2010 season finale was held at the same circuit.
Honda racing Corporation (HRC) has brought a host of RC212V chassis and engine parts to Valencia for the six riders to evaluate. Repsol Honda works riders Andrea Dovizioso, Dani Pedrosa and, new to the team, Casey Stoner were joined by Gresini Honda rider Marco Simoncelli on the fourth factory spec RC212V plus satellite team riders Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini) and Toni Elias (LCR Honda) on base line RC212V’s.
“We will test with many new parts,” said HRC Vice Preident Shuhei Nakamoto. “We are still developing now and we have many parts here including chassis, swing-arms, engines etc. We have many testing items here. We have four factory supported riders next year. We have a plan one rider tests this another other parts. Including chassis, we have frame body, we are still developing and we have two different types of chassis here. We will ask one for Dani, one for Casey, one for Andrea, one for Marco.”
The teams and riders were greeted by a rain soaked track when they arrived to begin work on a busy testing schedule which makes the already tight schedule even tighter. The track surface had dried sufficiently at lunch time to allow the riders dry testing time. In these days of limited MotoGP testing every hour permitted is vital to engineering progress.
Casey Stoner made his return to Honda machinery after a four year absence, his last season for Honda was in 2006 when he raced a 990cc RC211V for LCR Honda. With the blessing of Ducati The Australian rode the factory Repsol Honda RC212V 800cc machine for the first time, clocking an astonishing second fastest time of the day at 1m 32.775s was just 0.763s down on pole sitter Lorenzo’s time. He was just a tenth of a second outside his own FP3 time from the grand prix.
Stoner ran with the 2010 version of the RCV chassis, using one of Pedrosa’s 2010 race machines. He concentrated his efforts on finding the best possible riding position to suit his style and when reasonably comfortable on the RCV moved on to setting up the RCV for serious lap times. As in all forms of automoto racing the electronics play a huge part in machine set up and the RC212V debutant devoted considerable attention to that aspect of machine performance.
Pedrosa, the most experience of the RC212V riders, ended the day with fourth fastest time at 1m 32.912s just outside his fastest GP lap at 1m 32.914s on Sunday. The Spaniard is still suffering the after effects of a lingering collarbone break and ran for just 55 laps while evaluating improvements to his 2010 chassis and testing the first version of the proposed 2011 chassis chasing improved stability.
Andrea Dovizioso spent his day testing new chassis and swinging arm combinations before moving on to trying various electronic settings which, together with chassis modifications he hopes to improve stability under braking. The Italian expressed great satisfaction with the progress made on day one of the two day test.
Marco Simoncelli spent his first day as a full factory supported rider testing a new chassis that gave him improved traction and new front fork options. The young Italian was in superb form during the final races of the championship and today’s result of fifth place augers well for the future.
Casey Stoner is not the sole returnee to Honda MotoGP equipment. Spaniard Toni Elias, fresh from winning the inaugural Moto2 World Championship, took the LCR Honda RC212V to the track for the first time today. Elias raced the Gresini Honda RC212V to seventh place in the 2009 MotoGP series and is confident he can equal or better that performance in 2011.
Elias returning to power and delivery characteristics of the four-cylinder Honda engine after a year racing a Ducati put in 60 laps of the 4.005km circuit concentrating his time on electronics and tyre testing. Track conditions were not ideal and the Moto2 Champion decided upon a step by step approach to testing with his new team recording 16th fastest time of the day.
Hiro Aoyama has moved to the San Carlo Honda Gresini squad for his second tilt at MotoGP honours. Aoyama finished the 2010 season down in 15th place in the final points standings mainly due to the serious back injury sustained at the British GP in June that sidelined him for six races. Aoyama has experience of the RC212V but will need time to the new way of working at Team Gresini. The Japanese rider ended the day in buoyant mood.
Honda rider lap times and quotes.
Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 4th - 1m 32.912s.
“Today I rode the 2010 bike we used in Sunday’s race and also next year’s evolution machine. The chassis is slightly different and I have to do more laps tomorrow to understand it further - but my first thought is that it is a bit stiffer with the target of getting more stability, more grip and better braking. Today we used only one tyre and didn’t make many changes to the bike to keep things simple. Unfortunately we had a problem with the electronics on the first lap and this meant we lost some time in the pits, but anyway it was good not to do so many laps today because of my physical condition. I thought that having Monday off I would feel better but I’m still tired from yesterday and feeling some effects from the injury. The feeling is quite similar from both machines, although I didn’t get stuck into any real comparisons, so we will come back tomorrow and continue with our testing schedule.”
Marco Simoncelli, San Carlo Honda Gresini: 5th – 1m 32.919s.
“The conditions today certainly weren't easy with track temperatures down to just 20°C and strong winds but I am satisfied. I was pleased with the updates brought to us by Honda and everything worked very well. The new chassis gives us better traction compared to what we have been using this season, which made life difficult for us in a lot of places, and I could feel a good improvement. The new forks also worked better and my feeling was immediately as good if not better than the ones we've been using so overall it is good for the future and we can continue improving. Looking ahead to 2011 we have been working to a new strategy brought in by Honda, who have provided us with another telemetry engineer so that Elvio Deganello can concentrate more on the set-up of the electronics. I am really happy with this and I appreciate the support of Honda, which gives me even more motivation for next year.”
Andrea Dovizioso, Repsol Honda: 6th - 1m 33.190s
“We tried a new chassis and new swing-arm in 2011 configuration and we could feel small differences - although there was a lot of wind compared to race day which made for tricky conditions. The new chassis gave a little bit more stability at the rear and the new swing-arm gives less pumping, but there was a little less grip also, so we aim to find a compromise. The lap time came quite easily today without pushing too much or being at the limit, which is positive. I didn’t fit a soft tyre and go out to set one fast lap because we wanted to focus on our programme. So I’m very confident that we can improve a lot. Apart from Lorenzo who was so fast, we were all very close. At first we spent quite a long time finding the right setup for a new engine braking configuration, and we wanted to fix this before going on to analyse any new items. For tomorrow the plan is to test another chassis and several electronics settings, and we will also test the 2011 forks which are modified compared to the ones we tested in Brno in August. Tomorrow the weather forecast is good so I’m really looking forward to continuing this test.”
Hiro Aoyama, San Carlo Honda Gresini: 12th – 1m 33.953s.
“I am really happy with this first day of testing with Team San Carlo Honda Gresini. I quickly established a good feeling with the team and I like the way they work. We still have a lot of things to get used to but we already have a good understanding. Obviously I know the bike because I have been on it all year but I have to get used to a different way of working compared to the team I was with last year. I am happy though and tomorrow we will work hard again and try to improve on our performance today.”
Toni Elias, LCR Honda: 16th – 1m 35.058s.
Elias: “Well...This morning I was very excited to be back on a MotoGP machine. I missed the power and the sound of this bike but I have decided to take my time to adapt to the new machine and the new Team. This RCV is different and I need more track time to find the right feeling. Surface conditions were not fabulous today because of the rain and the dust taken by the strong wind so I took my first laps using the brain. The first impression about the squad is very positive: they are very organized and very friendly. There is still a lot of work to do together but I am confident we can find the right direction”.
Results
1 Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha 1m 32.012s
2 Casey Stoner, Repsol Honda 1m 32.775s
3 Ben Spies, Yamaha 1m 32.878s
4 Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda 1m 32.912s
5 Marco Simoncelli, San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m 32.919s
6 Andrea Dovizioso, Repsol Honda 1m 33.190s
7 Colin Edwards, Yamaha 1m 33.513s
8 Alvaro Bautista, Suzuki 1m 33.558s
9 Nicky Hayden, Ducati 1m 33.716s
10 Valentino Rossi, Ducati 1m 33.882s
11 Randy De Puniet, Ducati 1m 33.914s
12 Hiroshi Aoyama, San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m 33.953s
13 Hector Barbera, Ducati 1'34.110s
14 Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha 1m 34.314s
15 Loris Capirossi, Ducati 1m 34.631s
16 Toni Elias, LCR Honda 1m 35.058s
17 Karel Abraham, Ducati 1m 35.076s