PREVIEW – CHINESE GRAND PRIX - SHANGHAI 14/05/2006
CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM FOLLOWS EXPRESS ROUTE TO THE ORIENT
The whirlwind start to the 2006 MotoGP World Championship
continues next weekend as the paddock’s globetrotting
journey heads eastwards across Asia to the Shanghai International
Circuit in China. After visiting Spain, Qatar and Turkey in
the opening three rounds of the series, the Camel Yamaha Team
take their points quest back to the skies for another ‘flyaway’
race, before returning to start a European road trip that
covers seven races in nine weeks - starting at the Le Mans
circuit in France only seven days after the Chinese event.
Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards arrive in the country known
locally as ‘The Big Land’ with a mixed bag of
results under their arms after an unpredictable start to the
campaign. Rossi followed up a first-corner fall at Jerez with
victory in Doha before battling to fourth place in Istanbul
after a weekend dogged by technical difficulties and bad weather.
It has been a similar story for his Texan team-mate, who has
shown excellent pace in practice but has yet to find a set-up
package that will enable him to compete for race victories
and podiums.
The Shanghai circuit was designed by architects Hermann Tilke
and Peter Wahl and its layout was inspired by the shape of
the Chinese character 'shang', which stands for 'high' or
'above'. Other symbols represented in the architecture of
the circuit facilities originate from Chinese history, such
as the team buildings, which are arranged like pavilions on
a lake to resemble the ancient Yuyan-Garden in Shanghai. One
of the circuit’s most impressive features is the extraordinary
main grandstand, which holds capacity for 29,000 spectators
and provides a spectacular view of almost 80 percent of the
circuit.
VALENTINO ROSSI: TIGHT AND TECHNICAL
After taking a surprise wet-weather victory at this circuit
last season, Valentino Rossi is hoping for an identical result
in different conditions this time around. The torrential rain
that fell during the inaugural event at Shanghai one year
ago set the scene for one of the most impressive performances
of Rossi’s career but, given the choice, the World Champion
is hoping for a much more straightforward way to demonstrate
his superiority next Sunday.
“Out of all the victories in my career, China last
year was the one I least expected because of the problems
we had with the bike during the weekend and with the rain
on race day,” explains Rossi, who became the all-time
record points scorer in Grand Prix history thanks to his fourth
place finish in Turkey last week – a result that outs
him fifth in the championship. “It was the first time
I had won in the wet on the Yamaha, so it was a special victory,
but this year I would definitely prefer a dry race. The 2006
version M1 didn’t work as well as we had hoped in the
wet practice sessions in Turkey and we need as much dry track
time as possible to get the bike setting as I like it.”
Like Turkey the Shanghai circuit was designed by Hermann
Tilke, but it is much more similar to the German architect’s
other effort at Sepang in Malaysia, with tight bends and long
straights that, according to Rossi, make the rider’s
skill in setting the bike up even more important. “My
first impressions of the circuit last year were very good
but then it wasn’t as much fun as I expected,”
explains the Italian. “It is actually quite tight and
technical and is very much a Formula 1 track, so all the riders
have a lot of hard work to do finding the right setting for
the bikes. It is not ideal for MotoGP – it is a very
demanding circuit and it will test the riders and the bikes
to the maximum.”
COLIN EDWARDS: EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
Colin Edwards says he is unsure about what to expect in China
after experiencing such mixed fortunes at each of the opening
three rounds this season. Like his team-mate, the American
is hoping for favourable circumstances from the opening practice
in order to gather crucial set-up data for the 2006 version
YZR-M1 machine.
“Because we had so little dry time at Shanghai last
year I think there is a big question mark for everybody about
what is going to happen,” says Edwards, who currently
lies ninth in the championship on 19 points. “It will
be important to find a good setting for the bike as quickly
as possible so that we can get some endurance testing in before
the race and make sure we don’t have the problems we’ve
struggled with in previous weekends. This is a very important
Grand Prix for us and we simply have to end it with a decent
result before the championship heads back to Europe.
“The test at Istanbul on Monday was quite beneficial
because it gave us an idea of the lap times we could have
done in the race if we weren’t interrupted by the rain
on Saturday, which was encouraging, although it didn’t
win us any points back! We got a lot of laps in, which is
what we need right now, so the engineers have some good data
to work on over the next week before the race and I’m
confident they can come up with something for us in China.”
VALENTINO ROSSI: INFORMATION
Age: 27
Lives: London, UK
Bike: Yamaha YZR-M1
GP victories: 80 (54 x MotoGP/500cc, 14 x 250cc, 12 x 125cc)
First GP victory: Czech Republic, 1996 (125cc) First GP: Malaysia,
1996 (125cc) GP starts: 160 (100 x MotoGP/500cc, 30 x 250cc,
30 x 125cc) Pole positions: 40 World Championships –
7 Grand Prix (1 x 125cc, 1 x 250cc, 1 x 500cc, 4
x MotoGP)
COLIN EDWARDS: INFORMATION
Age: 32
Lives: Conroe, Texas
Bike: Yamaha YZR-M1
First GP: Japan, 2003 (MotoGP)
GP starts: 51 x MotoGP
World Championships - 2 World Superbike
DAVIDE BRIVIO: POSITIVE THINKING
Camel Yamaha Team Director Davide Brivio is looking towards
the Grand Prix in China as a major opportunity to turn around
the team’s early-season fortunes. Having enjoyed a particularly
fruitful weekend in Shanghai at this stage last season, the
Italian is hoping the event can prove to be a turning point
for the team at the start of a critical phase of the championship.
“Last year’s race in China was very important
for us because we won, and won well, in the wet and this helped
us to find the solutions to some problems we had with the
dry setting, so we are hoping it can be the same this time,”
says Brivio. “It has been a difficult start to the season
but despite the bad luck of Valentino’s crash in the
first round at Jerez he is still very close to the top. We’re
looking forward to seeing what both he and Colin are capable
of when the problems are solved and hopefully that can start
in China.
“Now we have eight races in eleven weekends, which
is a lot and puts pressure on everybody. For example our drivers
will be going straight from China to pick up the trucks and
driving them to France without a break, but I think it is
worse for the riders because they have no time to rest. In
any case the next three months are the core of the season
and a period where the situation regarding the championship
becomes much clearer. The conditions are the same for everybody
so we have to make sure we work to the best of our abilities
and come through with a good share of the points.”
TECHNICALLY SPEAKING:
COLIN EDWARDS’ SUSPENSION TECHNICIAN ROBERT
GRONLUND
Despite being drawn by the same hand as the Istanbul Circuit
in Turkey, Shanghai has different characteristics that draw
closer comparisons to the other Herman Tilke circuit of Sepang.
Combining fast straights and hard braking zones with a series
of slow and difficult corners, bike set-up is again a question
of finding a compromised balance, whilst the big unknown this
weekend will be the conditions – with last year’s
mixed bag of weather and the typically hot and humid climate
making grip levels a complete mystery until Friday morning
practice. “In some ways Shanghai is similar to
Turkey but in other ways it is very different,” explains
Robert Gronlund, Colin Edwards’ Ohlins suspension technician.
“For instance, it doesn’t flow as much as that
track but it does have a mixture of fast corners and very
hard braking zones, so in terms of the set-up the key is again
to have a good compromise – especially with the suspension.
The bike needs to turn well into the slow corners because,
like with the final section in Turkey, you can lose a lot
of time there. “The thing about Shanghai is that
we have only been once and it was sometimes wet and sometimes
dry, so we have a very limited amount of data. Really we’re
not worried about that though because we feel we made an important
step during the test in Turkey. We have reduced the vibration
problems we had at Jerez and Qatar and found a solution to
the difficulties we had at Istanbul – just generally
making the bike easier to ride. A lot will depend on the grip
levels at Shanghai and it certainly won’t be easy, but
we are looking forward to it.”
CIRCUIT INFORMATION
Pole Position left
Length: 5451 m
Width: 12 m
Right corners: 7
Left corners: 7
Constructed in: 2004
Shanghai Lap Record: Alex Barros (Honda) 2005 – 2’13.716*
Shanghai Best Lap: Sete Gibernau (Honda) 2005 – 1’59.710
Shanghai 2005 Results*:
1. VALENTINO ROSSI (Yamaha) 50’02.463
2. Olivier Jacque (Kawasaki) +1.700
3. Marco Melandri (Honda) +16.574
8. COLIN EDWARDS (Yamaha) +31.033
* Wet Race
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