Ben Spies can improve Yamaha

Ben Spies has the technical and development skills to maintain Yamaha’s status as the dominant force in MotoGP, according to former team boss Herve Poncharal.

Spies has moved to Yamaha’s factory squad for 2011, meaning he will get a much bigger role in the development of the YZR-M1 machine than previously when he rode for the satellite Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team.

Yamaha lost the renowned development skills of Italian icon Valentino Rossi at the end of last season when he opted to move to Ducati’s factory squad.

But Spies can help fill the void, according to Poncharal, having witnessed the Texan working at close quarters during an impressive rookie campaign in 2010.

Yamaha will certainly be looking to Spies and current world champion Jorge Lorenzo to showcase their development skills with 2012 seeing the introduction of the new 1000cc four-stroke class.

Out-going senior race boss Masao Furusawa confirmed to MCN in Sepang earlier this month that Yamaha’s 2012 project is already track testing in Japan.

And Spies will play a key role in development of the new machine while also fine-tuning the 2011 800cc YZR-M1 as Yamaha goes in search of a fourth straight title.

Poncharal told MCN: “I believe Ben feels a lot of things technically speaking. He is very methodical and he never comes in the garage whether he’s had a bad last run and throws his helmet or gets agitated.

“He just sits down and he explains very calmly what is happening and as Mr Furusawa has mentioned before, he is very good at explaining what is happening, what he feels and what he would need to go faster with the bike.

“Clearly I think this profile will help Yamaha to work well and develop a good machine. I’m not saying he will be better than Valentino but Ben now knows the bike well enough to be able to help them in the development of the bike.

“I’m confident he will be a good asset for them in terms of results but also in terms of helping them to develop the new bike. Ben doesn’t talk a lot but what he says is correct and it is exactly what an engineer needs to listen to.”