KONICA MINOLTA Honda heads east for Chinese GP
KONICA MINOLTA Honda heads east to the Chinese Grand Prix
this weekend hopeful of a turnaround in fortunes that will
see them once again fight at the front of the pack in the
MotoGP class.
Shinya Nakano is looking forward to the race at the Shanghai
circuit, as the 29-year-old Japanese rider enjoyed last year’s
event, qualifying in fourth position. He’s hoping that
his liking of the circuit layout will help him improve still
further on his new 800cc Honda RC212V.
The track itself is situated about 20 miles outside Shanghai
and was opened in 2004. It is 3.28 miles in length, features
14 corners and the longest straight on the MotoGP calendar.
Hermann Tilke designed the circuit. He also designed the Sepang
International Circuit in Malaysia, Istanbul Park in Turkey
and the Bahrain International Circuit. Practice begins on
Friday.
Gianluca Montiron – Team Manager KONICA MINOLTA
Honda
“Obviously we are not satisfied by our overall position
at the last race. We know there are many factors, which contributed
to this but now our job is to analyse these and try to improve
our overall machinery package in conjunction with our technical
partners HRC and Michelin. I think in China we will again
see the new tyre regulations have a big impact on the qualifying
sessions and the race as a whole, as will the temperatures
and conditions. Everyone in the KONICA MINOLTA Honda Team
will work hard to ensure that we will be fighting up with
the lead riders as soon as possible.”
Shinya Nakano – Rider, KONICA MINOLTA Honda
“I really quite like the Shanghai track although it
has some fast sections where top-speed is important –
especially the main straight – so I’m hoping we
won’t be too far behind the other teams and machines
for top-speed. Whatever happens the Team and I will be working
hard to find a good setting for the new 800cc Honda RC212V
from the first session and try to improve things further as
the weekend goes on. My aim as ever is the reach the chequered
flag and get some good points.”
Giulio Bernardelle – Technical Director, KONICA
MINOLTA Honda
“Shanghai is quite fast but we are pleased that Shinya
likes the layout very much and last year he had a good feeling
with the circuit so from this point of view the situation
could be good for us. If the weather is bad for the race,
we’re not so worried as we had a very good test after
the Jerez race in wet conditions, so it could be positive
for us if it rains. After the race in Turkey we had a meeting
with HRC technicians about our situation with race settings
and the lack of feeling that Shinya has. At least our problem
is clear, even if we still have to work hard because it seems
that the solution requests modifications beyond the normal
range available for the bike setting. It seems as if Shinya
is at the limit for handling and if he pushes any harder he
will crash and not actually improve his time. Probably we’d
need something new. In China we will do our best to get the
RC212V more to Shinya’s liking. I think we will see
once more the new tyre regulations having an affect on practice
and race times and the temperatures could change things even
more. The problem Michelin has is that they would like to
take a wider-range of slick tires per rider to the races,
but thanks to the regulations it is not possible, so we have
to take some risks when choosing tyres. This means the racing
will be exciting again.”
|
