GAULOISES YAMAHA TEAM TAKES TITLE QUEST TO FRANCE
The Gauloises Yamaha Team returned to Europe last week in
tired but contented mood after continuing its excellent start
to the 2005 campaign with another victory at the first ever
MotoGP event in China.
The historic trip to Shanghai wielded a second 25-point haul
of the season for Valentino Rossi and extended his lead in
the current World Championship standings to the same margin.
Another determined ride against the odds from Rossi’s
team-mate Colin Edwards consolidated Gauloises Yamaha’s
supremacy in the teams’ and manufacturers’ standings
after three eventful rounds.
With the bikes and team equipment taking the direct route
to France in readiness for this weekend’s eagerly-anticipated
fourth round, the past week has provided the riders and staff
with a welcome opportunity to take a brief rest and prepare
for another assault on the podium at Le Mans. The Bugatti
circuit has taken on an extra significance for the entire
team as they look to improve on Rossi’s comparatively
disappointing Le Mans result of fourth place from last season
and confirm the recent progress of the 2005 version YZR-M1.
Its advantages over last year’s machine have already
been made evident by winning performances from Rossi at Jerez
and Shanghai, as well as a solid second place in mixed conditions
at Estoril. A repeat podium performance at Le Mans would not
only extend the team’s principal objective of defending
the championship lead at every round but provide definitive
proof that the YZR-M1 is in better shape than ever to continue
dominating until the end of the season.
The historic Le Mans circuit first opened its gates to the
MotoGP World Championship in 1969 and has been home to the
series intermittently since then. Circuits at Albi, Rouen,
Reims, Clermont-Ferrand, Paul Ricard, Nogaro and Magny-Cours
have also played host to the French Grand Prix in the past
but the Bugatti circuit has been a fixture on the MotoGP calendar
for the last five seasons.
VALENTINO ROSSI: UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Valentino Rossi has a score to settle at Le Mans, one of
only five tracks at which he missed out on the podium last
season. The performance of his updated YZR-M1 machine in all
manner of conditions during the opening three rounds of the
season, particularly the progress made with the wet set-up
in Shanghai, has given the World Champion extra confidence
in its ability to adapt to any circuit, in any weather.
“The changes we made to the M1 on the morning of the
race in Shanghai benefited us and helped us to win my first
wet race with Yamaha,” explained Rossi. “Basically
we made the forks softer, less rigid, and I think these changes
will benefit us in the dry as well.
“Le Mans is not one of my favourite tracks, I had a
difficult race there last year and only finished fourth. I
hope we leave there having resolved our problems, whatever
the conditions are, and I have a feeling that we will. It
can be quite tricky there if the weather is bad, so I really
hope we have a bit of luck and it's dry, but at least if it
rains we know we are in a much better position than in the
past.”
Whilst Rossi has dominated the championship standings ever
since taking victory in the opening round at Jerez, his nearest
challenger has changed with every Grand Prix. After Sete Gibernau
and Alex Barros, the man now closest to the World Champion
after three rounds is his young compatriot Marco Melandri,
who lies some 25 points adrift.
“To beat Sete Gibernau and Alex Barros in those conditions
at Shanghai was the most incredible thing,” admits Rossi.
“Melandri did really well - also in the dry he is doing
a good job. For me to be so fast in the rain was fantastic.
I had never won in the wet before with Yamaha, so it was very
special and the points are so important.
“We were a bit worried over the Shanghai weekend because
Gibernau was so fast. Gibernau and Barros are always positive
in these wet conditions and I’m sure they expected to
beat me in the wet, so the win is also great for our morale!”
However, Rossi admits that his biggest threat this weekend
could come from an entirely different source, with home favourite
Olivier Jacque set for a second appearance after finishing
just 1.7 seconds behind the race winner on his return to MotoGP
in Shanghai. “I am a bit worried about Olivier Jacque
now because before the Shanghai race he said that he was only
riding in China as a kind of training to learn the bike, and
then he could concentrate on racing in Le Mans. He finished
second in China so who knows what might happen in France!”
COLIN EDWARDS: BETTER TIMES AROUND THE CORNER
Colin Edwards makes his way back to Europe via the same
route he headed out to China, having dropped by his home in
Texas for a brief visit before completing a journey halfway
around the world. The American heads to France hoping for
an upturn in the fortunes that have marred his start to the
season, the latest being a gear-shifter problem that limited
him to eighth place despite a spirited ride through the pack
from the fifth row of the grid in China.
“It’s been a funny season for me so far and I’m
just hoping everything comes together in France,” explains
Edwards. “China was very similar to Estoril in that
I showed I had the race pace but, through a series of circumstances
out of my control, I didn’t get the opportunity to push
for the podium.
“Nobody is more disappointed about that than myself
and I certainly don’t expect to be battling it out for
eighth place even at this early stage of the season. The main
thing is, though, that the positive signs are there and the
whole team is working hard. All we need now is a little turn
in luck and we’ll be there.
“I don’t mind Le Mans as a circuit too much –
last year was only my second time there but I set provisional
pole position and finished fifth in the race. It’s a
real ‘stop and go’ track, as everybody says, with
hard braking, tight corners and hard acceleration. We’ll
have some work to do with the set-up of the bike but we’ve
made a lot of progress over the last few weeks so hopefully
we can make it count.”
DAVIDE BRIVIO: RESTED AND READY TO GO RACING
Gauloises Yamaha Team Director Davide Brivio’s insatiable
thirst for racing action took him to Pesaro in Italy this
weekend, where he was taking part in a round of the Italian
Rally Championship as co-driver to Valentino Rossi’s
father Graziano. For Brivio it was a welcome chance to take
a break from the intensity of the MotoGP paddock as he predicts
another highly competitive weekend from his team in France.
“The bikes and all the equipment have been flown straight
to France from China so the past few days have been a good
opportunity for the team to get some rest after an intense
start to the season,” explained Brivio. “China
was a very important weekend for us; we worked very hard and
made some good progress with the setting of the bike in the
dry and we completely solved the problems we have had in the
past in the wet. Now we are hoping to take advantage of that
at Le Mans.
“Le Mans is one of the circuits we didn’t do
so well at last season, so we want to make up for that with
a victory this time around. It was a similar situation at
Jerez in the first round of the season and we managed to win
there, so it would be really nice to do the same thing in
France. Valentino has been able to take advantage of the improvements
we have made to the bike in the last few rounds and, if the
bike is good again this weekend, we should see Colin join
him at the top.”
BLAST FROM THE PAST: CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF YAMAHA
GLORY
Whilst the Le Mans circuit and the rain were two of Yamaha’s
most challenging obstacles last season, a combination of both
proved to be anything but a problem in the factory’s
first win at the Bugatti circuit almost two decades ago. The
eighth round of the 1987 500cc season saw Randy Mamola streak
to a convincing victory over Honda’s Pier Francesco
Chili by some 34 seconds, his second wet weather win that
season after taking the opening round at Suzuka by an even
bigger margin.
“The YZR handled really well and it was always fast
through the chicanes, so it was perfect for Le Mans,”
remembers Mamola, who went on to finish second in the championship
that season to Wayne Gardner. “I’d been on the
podium twice before for other factories at Le Mans so to get
my first win there with Yamaha was a special honour.
“Because of its history it is hard to think of another
track so synonymous with racing as Le Mans and in the modern
day nobody works harder than them to create an event around
the Grand Prix. The fans there are incredible and the feeling
you get as they cheer you into turn one is an unforgettable
experience – especially if you are leading the race!”
Mamola raced for no fewer than 14 years at the top level
of Grand Prix racing and admits that signing for Yamaha’s
factory squad, run by his boyhood hero Kenny Roberts, was
one of the highlights of his career. “When I was a 14-year-old
I earned a contract with Yamaha USA and my first race bike
was a Yamaha TA125. At that time Kenny Roberts was the leading
dirt-tracker in America and he was my hero. I used to ask
him to sign posters for my bedroom. In 1986 I got the chance
to ride for Yamaha in the World Championship and be a part
of his team, so it was a dream come true for me.”
TECHNICALLY SPEAKING
The 4.180 km Le Mans circuit is an archetypal stop-go track,
with the added complication of one of the highest speed curves
of any circuit on the calendar, just after the short start-finish
straight. There are several hairpins and chicanes, calling
for not just balance and control under hard and repeated braking,
but a neat and swift transfer from full braking to full acceleration
on the exit of the corners. With nine right-handers and only
four lefts, the track is also particularly hard on one side
of the tyres.
Firmer front fork settings and spring rates are usually needed
to handle the frequent braking demands, whilst a slightly
softer rear spring, with a higher than normal pre-load, is
adopted to allow the machine to hold a line exiting corners,
due to the reduced ride height which will be necessary to
help the M1 remain stable under hard braking.
VALENTINO ROSSI: INFORMATION
Age: 26
Lives: London, UK
Bike: Gauloises Yamaha Team YZR-M1
GP victories: 70 (31 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: 143 (51 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)
Le Mans 2004 results (Yamaha): Grid: 4th, Race: 4th
COLIN EDWARDS: INFORMATION
Age: 31
Lives: Conroe, Texas
Bike: Gauloises Yamaha Team YZR-M1
GP victories: -
First GP: Japan, 2003 (MotoGP)
GP starts: 35
Pole positions: -
First pole: -
World Championships - 2 World Superbike
Le Mans 2004 results (Honda): Grid: 1st, Race: 5th
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