[Sphere]

Capirossi better than Rossi

Or so Barros seem to imply every other interview to Brazilian news. He always rated Capirossi higher, specially at qualifing. The boy is fast.

But also Barros called it a day too early. He should have stayed till the last minutes. In any case, I rate Barros higher more as a racer than a 3 lap wonder.

What about Biaggi? What a fluke.

 

[BadCop]

I watched the live streaming video on Motogp.com, it was quite exciting to see some real action.



The last lap by Capirossi was Bayliss-like, he was on the verge of losing it on several corners, doing wild power slides and getting whipped about. It was clear the Ducati had trouble hooking up smoothly on the exits. Nevertheless, the Duc is going to be a force this year, along with Yamaha and hopefully Aprilia. I'm a Honda fan, but I'm quite happy for the other manufacturers as it'll make for some unpredictable and exciting outcomes. Bring it on!

 

[BadCop]

"Maxine" Biaggi?

 

[Sphere]

So that mean that as the bike stands right now, it would either eat its tyres early in the race to keep up with the other, or it would save tyres and lap 1 sec slower. I don't think this is enough for a title bid...



Which doesn't matter for us fans who wants to see real battle, sooner or later.

 

[sarnali]

more like colin " got his ass kicked " edwards, 203 mph!!! looks like a good season ahead

 

[rsheidler]

Aprilia Problem

This is the word from Colin's camp:

Team ALICE Aprilia Racing, during the second day of testing here in Barcelona, finishes on an unhappy note. At the end of this morning's practice session Colin crashed out, breaking a finger on his left hand. The crash was caused by a technical problem, and for this reason the project leader stopped the second rider Noriyuchi Haga until the cause of the problem was solved. Once the bike was okay, the riders were given the go-ahead and made a great time of (1'45"755). Although with this problem the results hoped for were not achieved. The work of the team continues for another week with Marcellino Lucchi,

COLIN EDWARDS - "I wasn't happy about crashing, but it wasn't my fault as it was impossible to avoid. My hand is a little sore, but I'm sure that I will be okay for Suzuka."

NORIYUCHI HAGA - "I stayed in the box, waiting for my mechanics to make all of the technical tests. When I restarted the bike was okay, but by this time the track temperature was too low, so I wasn't able to improve on my time".

GIGI DALL' IGNA (Project Leader MotoGp): "Colin's crash happened due to a loose particle which jammed the injection system, and for this reason I made a complete check on Haga's bike for a safety reasons. I hope to arrive back in Italy with more technical information. Hopefully we will make a test here in Barcelona after Jerez, to find the best set up for the bikes for this circuit. This week the technical work will continue in Mugello with our test team.

 

[rsheidler]

Yamaha Press Release on Barcelona

I agree that, based on tests to date, Barros is still the one to beat this year. His former teammate, Capirossi is a very fast rider, but typically qualifies better than he races. Both will win some races this year, but I think Barros will be able to be there more consistantly.

Clearly, both have adapted exceptionally well, and quickly, to the 4-strokes. This time last year, nobody would have been talking about either one contesting the championship.

To see the official Yamaha Racing press release (maybe they took my suggestion about not letting Fortuna issue the releases), CLICK HERE

 

[rsheidler]

Tire Management

I know that at least Barros, Bayliss and Edwards have repeatedly done race length simulations in testing -- I assume the others have done so as well.

Barros, in particular, is known as the master of tire management, often being able to run one step softer tire than anyone else. I think this is the advantage he will have over Capi. That is also Rossi's strength.

Troy and Colin are also known as being good at saving their tires, or, failing that, remaining competitive on shagged tires.

 

[rsheidler]

Ducati Press Release

To see the official Ducati CLICK HERE

 

[rsheidler]

Most Improved Rider Award Goes To......

Most improved rider award goes to Nicky Hayden. Nicky has never been a good qualifier and has a hard time getting speed on an empty track. He finally found good speed at Phillip Island when he was allowed to follow Rossi for a few laps, and today, he was very inpressive, with the 13th fastest time overall.

Note that he just edged out Hopkins for as the fastest American.

Any word on what happened to Kenny? I have not yet checked to see if there is any explanation on the Suzuki web site.

 

[crazybike_37]

I think everybody's getting the wrong picture when they look at the fact that Hayden took Hopkins by a tenth of a second.



See, what happened was, they decided to race with no helmets, just sunglasses, SoCal style. Then, once up to speed, Hopkin's ears created a huge aerodynamic drag coefficient, while Nicky's nose served to streamline his entire head, thereby accounting for the tenth of a second less time on the straightaways for the Virginian.

 

[badsac]

Yeah right

Riding a development of the world championship bike in the same team as the world champion and going 1.287 seconds faster than yesterday.

I think at least Bayliss with 1.804 seconds improvement on an underdeveloped bike comfortably sees him off.

 

[rsheidler]

Re: Yeah right

I guess this is the same "undeveloped Bike" that took quickest time and highest top speed of the weekend?

Seriously, I agree that if you look strictly at change in times day to day, Bayliss had more improvement. However, if it was relative to expectations, that is another matter. In this case, the surprise is that Bayliss' Saturday time was so slow, especially after having had An "extra" practice day on Thursday. Normally, we expect that by the 2nd or third day, Troy's times are right there with Capi's. Nicky, on the other hand, has typically been quite a ways off the pace even by the end of each session.

Regards

Bob

 

[rsheidler]

Re: Aprilia Problem

Word this morning from Colin's dad is that the X-Ray shows a hairline crack, but nothing to worry about. Colin said that if it had been on a race weekend, he would have been out there again.

He will continue with tests and developement as planned.

Bob

 

[jamesohoh7]

That boy does have himself a set of ears, doesn't he!



I hope he doesn't pick up a certain large-ear related nick-name due to any sort of bad riding... the press would go nuts. I don't even want to say it here.



I like Hopper... I admire the guy jumping into the fray last year on a 500, and doing quite well considering all that was against him. I think he showed some promise for sure... I think he was in the points on just about every race he finished. He did pretty well not to crash as much as many predicted.



-James

 

[39970]

Yeah, what's up with that!?

 

[KPaulCook]

Ducati has been very impressive given their obsolete twin legacy . I hope Ducati continues. I would make MotoGP fun to watch. Poor Kawasaki. Maybe they shoud race the ZX-7R . Suzuki should enter a GSXR 1000 given the pathetic performance of their Moto GP bike. Just kidding.

 

[rsheidler]

I'm not gonna take the bait ;-)



It is clear that not ALL of their WSB success is atributable to their "unfair" displacement advantage -- they obviously learned a thing or two about producing speed and horsepower along the way.



I don't think even Ducati had expectations that they would so quickly be on the pace. I expect that Honda got caught napping a bit -- I believe they felt that a few incremental improvements from last year's RCV would be good enough.



Re Kawasaki, looks like EBoz can be happy he was passed over for the GP job. Looks like a frustrating season. Suzuki have improved a lot, but unfortunately, they now have a bike that would have been very competitive for the 2002 season. Looks like they got caught off guard by the extent that Ducati and Yamaha have raised the bar.



There were reports, prior to the Suzuki tests at Sepang that Mladin privately bragged that he and Yates would be faster than KRJR and Hopper who were testing at the same time. Turns out they weren't even close.



My opinion is that a big part of Suzuki's and Kawasaki's problem is not so much with the factories as with the actual race teams. That is where the top Honda teams, as well as the Ducati and Yamaha organizations shine. They all seem to have strong team leaders who can communicate with the factories and work together to solve the problems. I don't see that with Suzuki or Yamaha. Also looks like Colin has that kind of relationship with Aprilia, although that certainly was NOT the case with the Aprilia team last year. To develop a new bike, it is critical to have an excellent communication between the development rider, the crew chief and the factory.

 

[Buzglyd]

Could you just show a little more enthusiasm?

Bob, you're bringing us all down with your lack of enthusiasm about racing.

Try to at least fake it, ok?

 

[badsac]

Re: Yeah right

Underdeveloped, not undeveloped.

I guess Bayliss was just working on some stuff the first day and didn't feel it neccessary to push for a fast time that day. He sped up when it counted though.

But yeah, I get your point. Just having a little dig.