GAULOISES YAMAHA TEAM READY FOR HISTORIC TRIP TO CHINA
 The
Gauloises Yamaha Team will be at the forefront of a groundbreaking
event in the history of the MotoGP World Championship this
weekend, as the series visits China for the first time in
its 56-year history. The Chinese public will get their first
opportunity to see the world’s most advanced motorcycles
and skilled riders at close quarters, having been able to
enjoy the first two rounds of an already dramatic season on
television for the first time.
It has been a terrific start to the campaign so far for the
Gauloises Yamaha Team, who lead the riders’ and teams’
standings after successful races in Spain and Portugal. Reigning
World Champion Valentino Rossi opened his title defence with
victory in the opening round at Jerez and followed up with
a solid second place in difficult conditions at Estoril last
week.
The Italian’s advantage at the top currently stands
at seven points over Alex Barros (Honda), whilst his team-mate
Colin Edwards continues to gain confidence in his first season
aboard the YZR-M1. Edwards now lies eighth overall after a
determined performance in Portugal, which saw him finish sixth
despite falling midway through the race.
The Shanghai International Circuit presents a completely
new challenge for both riders, who will look to build on exhaustive
work during the winter testing period designed at finding
an adaptable base setting for their YZR-M1 machines. An extra
day of tests working to this end in Portugal last Monday should
help them to swiftly adapt the bike to the demands of the
Shanghai track, billed as the “race circuit for the
new millennium” at its opening last year.
The 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 if the
circuit’s most impressive features is the extraordinary
main grandstand, which hosts some 29,000 seats and provides
a spectacular view of almost 80 percent of the circuit.
Whilst none of the MotoGP riders will have previously been
able to test at the Shanghai circuit until free practice gets
underway on Friday morning, its winding turns and high-speed
straights promise plenty of opportunities for overtaking and
are sure to provide more close MotoGP racing in Sunday’s
inaugural Chinese Grand Prix.
VALENTINO ROSSI: UNCHARTED TERRITORY
Valentino Rossi faces an entirely new experience this weekend
as he looks to extend his global phenomenon across new boundaries
and into the Chinese market for the first time. His talent
and charisma is sure to stretch his fan base even further,
but the World Champion is typically focussed on events on
the track and defending his early championship lead.
“I’m really looking forward to being at the new
track in China, a completely new place for us,” commented
Rossi. “I think the circuit will be very good; it is
wide, fast and technical. We have had two weeks between the
Portuguese race and China and we need to make some improvements
with the bike, so hopefully we can continue that in Shanghai
during the practice sessions. There is not much more I can
say about it because I have never been to the country or the
circuit!”
Rossi’s call for improvements were met by an intense
day of tests at Estoril last Monday, ironing out some of the
difficulties that restricted him to a relatively subdued charge
to second place in Sunday’s race. Despite already proving
to be competitive in the opening two rounds of the season,
the 2005 version YZR-M1 is still in its development phase
and Rossi is looking to make further progress in China.
“As for the Estoril race, above all I was trying not
to fall in the slippery conditions! It was quite a tactical
race for me because of the wet patches on the track,”
he said. “I had some problems at the start and found
it difficult to get up front, but anyway we are looking good
for points and hopefully Shanghai is the place to get even
more.”
COLIN EDWARDS: AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHT DAYS!
Whilst most of the Gauloises Yamaha Team and the rest of
the MotoGP paddock are making their way east to China this
week, Edwards will be continuing his journey west after paying
a flying visit to his hometown of Conroe in Texas. Edwards
and his wife Alyssia stopped off in the USA to take a couple
of days’ rest and to leave baby daughter Gracie in the
hands of their family as they prepare for a new cultural and
personal experience.
“We headed home last Tuesday because we figured the
distance to China from Portugal was pretty much the same whichever
way around the world you go!” explained the 31 year
old. “It’s been nice to be able to spend a couple
of days at home but now myself and my wife Alyssia are ready
to head for China and leave Gracie with Grandma!
“I’m looking forward to China. I’ve never
been there and I think it’s the kind of country everybody
would like to go to at least once in their life, just to check
it out and experience the culture and the people first hand.”
Edwards is currently in just his third season in MotoGP after
several years in the World Superbike series and, as such,
has become accustomed to learning his way around new tracks.
It is a factor that helped propel him to second place in the
series’ first visit to Qatar last season and the American
is hoping the experience can pay dividends in China after
an encouraging weekend in Portugal.
“I’ve seen the map, which looks very much in
the style of a modern F1 circuit, but we’ll have to
wait and see when we get there. The one thing I’ve got
going for me is that I’ve had to learn a lot of new
tracks over the last couple of years and I’m kind of
in the habit. Judging by Qatar last year I can learn pretty
quick and I’m looking forward to the challenge. I think
Shanghai can be a good track for us.
“I’m not getting carried away with the result
at Estoril – it was a definite improvement from Jerez
but it’s still short of where we want to be. The important
thing is that I felt comfortable with the bike, we got the
balance of it right and we made even more progress in the
test on the following day. Now we’ll head out to China
and see how that work pays off.”
DAVIDE BRIVIO: NEW TRACK, SAME GOALS
Gauloises Yamaha Team Director Davide Brivio is one of the
only team members to have previously visited China, having
recently made the trip over to check out the Shanghai International
Circuit facilities. The Italian says he is looking forward
to this weekend’s experience as much as anybody, but
insists the main focus remains on defending the team’s
early championship lead.
“Everyone is quite curious to experience a new place
and especially China, which is such a special country,”
says Brivio. “I have actually been before to visit the
Shanghai circuit and I can say it is very good. The facilities
are nice and the track is very interesting. It has two long
straights and some technical corners – it’s a
nice mix.
“We head to China leading the championship and, as
in the last round at Estoril, our aim is to continue that
way. We were also very pleased with Colin’s performance
in Portugal and he would have definitely finished in the top
four if it wasn’t for his fall, so we know the work
we are doing is good. The conditions were difficult for all
the riders in the race so the test on Monday was important
to work on the base setting of the bikes and we were able
to solve some things.”
Brivio added that an extra day of testing after each of the
opening two rounds at both Jerez and Estoril have been crucial
in accelerating evolution of the 2005 version YZR-M1. Finding
a base setting for the machine has been the team’s target
ever since the bike was wheeled out for the first time at
Sepang in January and Brivio hopes they will be rewarded for
their hard work in China.
“The basic idea of all our winter tests was to find
a base that normally works everywhere. We had some delays
with the 2005 bike so we have continued that work into the
first two races of the season and now we hope we have found
what we were looking for. It is a completely new machine and
it always takes time to get up to speed, so we’re curious
to check how much progress we have made at a new track like
Shanghai.”
BLAST FROM THE PAST: CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF YAMAHA
GLORY
Whilst this is the first Motorcycle Grand Prix to be held
on mainland China, international road racing has been running
for almost forty years on the south-eastern peninsular of
Macau, now a Specia l Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's
Republic of China after several years of occupation by the
Portuguese. The first edition of the Macau Motor Cycle Grand
Prix was held in 1967 and was won by Yamaha, with Hiroshi
Hasegawa taking the chequered flag on his Yamaha RD56 after
30 laps of the Guia circuit.
Two years later, history was made in Macau when John MacDonald
became the first and only man ever to have won both the car
and motorcycle events, also riding a Yamaha. Another interesting
date on Yamaha’s timeline at the Macau Grand Prix came
in 1978, when Yamaha riders filled the podium with Sadeo Asami,
Steve Parrish and Mike Trimby.
TECHNICALLY SPEAKING
Although the MotoGP teams have never been to the Shanghai
International Circuit before, the 5,451m track promises to
provide an interesting challenge for the engineers. With a
virtually equal ratio of nine left and seven right-hand corners,
as well as two long straights followed by hard braking zones,
the emphasis will again be on finding a balanced base setting
for the Yamaha YZR-M1.
The longest straight runs parallel to the Dragster track between
turns thirteen and fourteen and has a length of 1,175m, which
should permit top speeds in excess of 320km/h, whilst technical
corners such as a snail-like narrowing section between turn
one and turn three are unlike any other corner in the world.
Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards spent last Monday’s
test at Estoril working specifically on their set-up for Shanghai,
making further progress with the general setting of the 2005
version YZR-M1 and finding a comfortable base which they will
now take to China. Whilst initial gearbox settings have already
been calculated on the circuit layout, both riders will use
Friday morning’s free practice session to gather data
about the peculiarities of the track, such as bumps and grip
levels, before making specific adjustments in the build-up
to Sunday’s race.
VALENTINO ROSSI: INFORMATION
Age: 26
Lives: London, UK
Bike: Gauloises Yamaha Team YZR-M1
GP victories: 69 (30 X MotoGP, 13 X 500cc, 14 X 250cc, 12
X 125cc)
First GP victory: Czech Republic, 1996 (125cc)
First GP: Malaysia, 1996 (125cc)
GP starts: 142 (50 x MotoGP, 32 x 500cc, 30 x 250cc, 30 x
125cc)
GP Pole positions: 36
World Championships – 6 Grand Prix (1 x 125cc, 1 x 250cc,
1 x 500cc, 3 x MotoGP)
COLIN EDWARDS: INFORMATION
Age: 31
Lives: Conroe, Texas
Bike: Gauloises Yamaha Team YZR-M1
GP victories: -
First GP: Japan, 2003 (MotoGP)
GP starts: 34
Pole positions: -
First pole: -
World Championships - 2 World Superbike
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