Marco seeks tyre life

A disappointing test in Qatar this week has left Marco Melandri bemoaning rear tyre endurance as the time ticks away for Bridgestone to make better rubber for the Italian’s Honda.

With the first race at Qatar in a few weeks, Melandri’s problem in Qatar was again centred around rear endurance and he said: “We don’t have so much edge grip at maximum angle and it drops down very early after five laps. I tried to do a run in Qatar just to see how long I could do on a rear tyre before the performance dropped.”

Melandri said his problems and subsequent solutions were different to factory Ducati rider Loris Capirossi. He tried the same Bridgestone rear tyre that Capirossi had completed a full 22-lap race simulation on but Melandri couldn’t get it to work.

He said: “Ducati is totally different to our bike and it’s more similar to the 990 in the way they can open the throttle. Honda has less power so we have to make up time in the corners. So we spend more time at maximum lean angle and this finishes the tyre earlier. 

The Ducati riders can pick up the bike like the 990 and open the throttle earlier. For us it is impossible with this engine and we need to use more corner speed for the lap time.”