Blog: Desert Storm

MCN’s MotoGP Matt Birt gives an update on what’s happening behind the scenes midway through the IRTA tests in Qatar.

Greetings all from the barren desert landscape that is the Losail circuit in Qatar. 

As its Valentine’s Day and I’m stuck in a hotel in Doha on my tod watching Sky News, I thought I’d best share some tales on what has been an incredible opening couple of days in the Middle East. 

It was funny tonight because I got back from the track late and just crashed and ordered room service. It turned up with a red rose on the table. Well at least the waiter wasn’t holding it in his mouth.

Qatar is growing on me the more I come here, but MotoGP isn’t growing on Qatar at all. 

I’m at a different hotel than normal so I needed to check directions to the track yesterday morning and the receptionist looked at me like I’d got two heads with a green Mohican. He’d never even heard of the circuit, and that’s the same thing that’s happened to me since we first came here in 2004. 

Anyway, lets start off with Yamaha who already seem a dead cert to be claiming victory in that first GP back here in Qatar in a couple of weeks.

Bold statement perhaps, but even Marco Melandri when I caught up with him tonight said Yamaha looks certain to win the opening GP. 

You can’t deny that Colin Edwards and Valentino Rossi don’t look frighteningly good. First and second on both days, Edwards has carried on where he left off in Sepang a few days ago and has topped the timesheets on the first two days. 

Talk about the cat that got the cream, Colin is looking as dangerous as he has at any stage in his MotoGP career. Four out of the last five days testing now, Colin has nudged in front of Valentino, and the new Yamaha YZR-M1 is definitely the best bit of kit out there in these early 800cc days.

I went out on track again today and while the Yamaha isn’t necessarily the best on the brakes, Rossi and Edwards seem to be able to open the throttle a fraction of a second earlier in the corner. Suzuki seems definitely the best on the brakes but like in Australia they are having grip problems in the faster corners.

Power delivery was always going to be massive on the 800. With less capacity and hence less power, engineers were always going to eek up rpm to try and maximise available horsepower.

In turn though this sharpened up throttle response and power delivery suddenly became even more critical than ever. Last year at almost every track teams were taking away power because the 990s just had too much. That’s why last year’s lap times are already being smashed, as the horsepower available is much more usable and rider-friendly. 

Most riders from Honda and Ducati though have been complaining about aggressive power delivery yet I’ve not heard a peep out of Colin or Valentino about it. And while it is clear the Yamaha isn’t the fastest on the straight, it makes up a hell of a lot of time in the corners.

Today Colin was an incredible 1.1s faster than Valentino’s 2006 lap record on a 990cc machine, and here’s me thinking the capacity reduction was going to make MotoGP safer.

I remember speaking to Valentino in September I think last year and he said that by the middle of next season the 800s would be on 990 pace. But they are not close to last year’s times, they are obliterating them, with the late braking, higher corner speed and better tyre endurance with less horsepower making lap times plummet already.

Makes you wonder where we will mid-season when the development process really kicks in.

What was notable today too was how at this track the riders are using more 250 lines than at any other track, really just going from white line to white line. 

I reckon its all going to make for some incredible racing, assuming the Yamaha’s don’t disappear off into the distance. 

Clearly Yamaha has got everybody running for cover and wanting to find out how they’ve rolled a good bike from the off. I was watching from pitlane for a bit yesterday and at one point it was like the start of a MotoGP race as Valentino came by followed by five or six other riders in hot pursuit in his slipstream. 

The next lap he came by well behind everybody, as he’d just rolled off and denied anybody the chance to have a good look at his strengths. 

Following riders in testing is part of the game, sometimes just to see what cards the opposition hold and others to get towed around to a better lap time. 

A lot of guys can turn great lap times when they are tucked in behind somebody else, while give them clear track and it’s a whole different proposition. Valentino is a bit too savvy to let people tail him, as are most riders.

There’s been plenty of stuff going on elsewhere, with the pressure of trying to get a set-up for that crucial first race intensifying, and mistakes creeping in as time runs out in testing.

Shinya Nakano, Randy de Puniet and Casey Stoner all crashed today, while Loris Capirossi and Oliver Jacque were gravel trap visitors yesterday. 

Thankfully all were ok, though Jacque’s crash apparently was a monster at Turn Two. John Hopkins was right behind and he said: “The Frenchman really did it in style.” OJ perhaps wisely decided to take a breather today after he suffered a concussion in the spill. 

Apparently he made it back to the pits of his own accord but he was in a right old daze. He didn’t know where he was, who he was or what was his birthday. For all he knew he was bloody Charlie Chaplin. Clearly he took a fair old knock to the head and it again raises a few questions about how strict medical controls are in MotoGP.

Doctors said OJ could ride today, even though 18 hours previously he didn’t even know his own name. I know in other sports like rugby that a concussion means a mandatory 21-day ban I think.

I know this is issue has been debated a lot in the past, particularly with more and more younger riders emerging to the sport where their welfare is absolutely paramount. 

One man who had a headache today was Nicky Hayden as he suffered a shocker. Nicky crashed twice today which is incredible. 

That meant he crashed the same number of times in seven hours today as he did in the whole of his championship year last season. And one of those crashes wasn’t his fault, as if any of us can forget that Estoril incident when Dani Pedrosa slammed him off track.

Nicky’s mood was in stark contrast to yesterday. Apparently one of his new targets for 2007 is to come out of the gate quick from Friday morning. 

Too often he felt he was left behind in the first practice session and just playing catch-up thereafter. His new tactic seemed to work fine yesterday as he claimed fifth fastest time, and he said it was one of the best days of testing he’d had on the new Honda 800.

Today was a nightmare though. First he crashed this morning at the last corner and then he binned it at Turn 2 late on. And that was after he’d blown one of the normally bullet-proof Honda engines. 

He sat analysing data to try and find a cause for the spills late tonight, but it was a case of the computer says no. No definite conclusions apparently which only added to Nicky’s bewilderment. 

He was 11th fastest today and already there’s the ‘can he handle the pressure’ question flying around the paddock. We all know Nicky hasn’t taken to these new 800s like a duck to water, and the fact that team-mate Pedrosa is really starting to hit form has only heightened Nicky’s urgency to get things right.

He reckons he doesn’t feel like he’s got a bullseye on his back with the number one plate but like a lot of Honda riders the vibes about the first race are not good. ‘We are not ready’, words heard from the mouths of Nicky, Melandri and Carlos Checa.

I saw Carlos tonight and without wanting to sound like a broken record, when I asked if him if power was still the new Honda’s shortfall he laughed and said: “We know its power, even my mother knows this.”

There were plenty of other long faces around today too, most of them worn by the guys on Bridgestone tyres. Qatar has always been one of those quirky tracks for the Japanese factory whereby the surface conditions means riders must use virtually the hardest compound front available- harder than at any other track on the calendar.

Problem is while the harder tyre last for race distance, it is much weaker on turning, which is critical on the 800s with change of direction much easier.

I saw Loris tonight and he tried to put a brave face on it, but I know privately he’s told people that his bike is impossible to ride, and if he puts in a softer front then it barely lasts two or three laps.

There’s already rumblings around that Bridgestone might have bitten off more than they can chew for 2007. They now have four two-rider teams, all who request different tyres to suit their machines. 

I remember last year Ducati telling me that they needed completely different tyres to what Suzuki and Kawasaki use. Are Bridgestone spreading themselves too thin? Well look at Michelin, they no longer participate in world rally and quit Formula One to leave Bridgestone sole supplier in F1. 

Michelin has taken a massive leap forward again this winter, particularly with the new 16-inch front, which is now universally used by all of its riders. 

There must be a big skip of 16.5-inch fronts in France somewhere. Michelin has been able to focus totally on MotoGP and has a clear advantage, with only Honda and Yamaha to supply. 

There’s plenty more going on but I’ll save that for an end of test wrap up. I’m off to bed with my red rose!

Laters. M