Chatter fails to end Casey Stoner’s winter dominance

It is going to take a lot more than a persistent chatter issue to end Casey Stoner’s domination of the MotoGP world championship after he topped the timesheets in Sepang this week.

The 2011 world champion ended a rain-hit three-day test with a best time of 2.00.473 to finish 0.175s clear of Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa.

Stoner has now topped the leaderboard in the opening two tests of 2012, despite failing to cure a persistent chatter problem with his new Honda RC213V 1000cc machine.

Honda has not yet been able to dial out the chatter issue, which has appeared since Bridgestone introduced its new softer construction tyres for the 1000cc era.

Chatter is a vibration under braking and corner entry but it is having little impact on Stoner’s ability to continue dominating the MotoGP field.

The Australian said: “We’ve had chatter issues from day one with these new tyres and we’ve tried to reduce it but it is still way too much.  We’ll have to work hard at the next test to try and reduce it.

“We’ve tried a few things here but didn’t make any progress. In general the chassis balance is really good, we just need to get rid of the chatter. Unfortunately we might have to race one with the chatter. 

“But to still be competitive is still really good for us.  I’m worried that we are not going to get rid of the chatter but at the same time not worried to lose speed, just worried about feeling.”

The fear for the rest of the MotoGP field must be how much of a limiting factor the chatter is for the 26-year-old, who recently became a father for the first time with the birth of his daughter Alessandra on February 16.

The 2007 MotoGP world champion added: “We’ve definitely got a couple tenths in it without chatter but I wouldn’t say its so much the speed it is feeling. That’s what I’m afraid off when we get to tracks where we don’t have perfect feeling with the front and the chatter makes it that much worse.”

Chatter isn’t the only area in which Stoner is keen to improve with the RC213V before the defence of his title kicks off in Qatar on April 8.

He added: “We would like to reduce the wheelie a bit. The way I like the bike set-up we tried something for the chatter and reduced it a little but when I come out of the corners I get a little more rear grip and I get too much wheelie.

“We’ll see if we can improve that at Jerez. It is a short track, which will give us a good indication. 

“Once we get rid of the chatter we will understand exactly how much the bike is turning. The chatter might be a good thing and once we get rid of it the bike might not turn.”

For seven pages of coverage from the Sepang test, see the March 7 issue of MCN.