Valentino Rossi has warned Dani Pedrosa not to expect Bridgestone tyres to instantly transform his fortunes as the Yamaha star expressed his surprise at the Spaniard’s shock switch.Rossi needed three months of winter testing and the early part of the season to fine-tune his factory Yamaha YZR-M1 to Bridgestone tyres, and said Pedrosa shouldn’t be banking on the Japanese rubber to be a miracle cure.
Rossi, who also orchestrated his own switch to Bridgestone after a torrid 2007 campaign with Michelin, said: “I was in exactly the same position last year but sincerely I didn’t think to try the tyre during the season.
"The potential of Bridgestone is very high but it is not like you put a Bridgestone sticker on the bike and like magic you go faster. You have to work a lot and you have a lot of pressure because at he beginning my performance was not much faster than Michelin and people were questioning my decision.
"It is a risky move for Dani, and a move like this at this time is quite strange I think.”
Yes, it's true. Dani Pedrosa has made it be known that he doesn't want Michelins on his bike and the young Spaniard has got his way. In an astonishing 'mutual' decision which bodes ill for the rest of the season. And who would bet against a single-make tyre championship in 2009? And it looks like his decision was the right one (at Misano anyway) when on his first day of testing, he went almost a second a lap quicker on the Japanese brand than. Pedrosa did a total of 81 laps, working mainly on setting his Repsol Honda up for the Bridgestone's characteristics and went eight-tenths faster than his best race lap on Sunday.
Here's the wee man's quote from the press release:
Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 1m 34.652s – on lap 76 of 81.
“I'm happy starting this new challenge and I would like to thank Bridgestone. Today we also made an important step forward in developing the 2009 bike, but now my first priority is to be fully competitive again. Of course, there is a lot of work to do but I am determined to win again this year. Today we worked hard on bike set-up. The feeling with the new tyres on my RC212V is different, both for settings and for riding style, but I just tried to follow my feelings and adjust the set-up accordingly.
“Today was only my first day riding on Bridgestone tyres but I am happy. I also tested the pneumatic-valve engine. The engine character is different, the power delivery is a bit more aggressive, but the engine has some good points. I have no experience on this latest bike, so I had to test many new things today. This has been an important test. Now we will analyse all the data and we look forward to the next race at Indianapolis.”
Here's the earlier press release:
'For 24 years Michelin and Honda have worked together at the highest level of motorcycle racing. Together the two companies have won 14 premier-class World Championships.
The two companies fully understand the importance of the “feeling” between the rider and the equipment he has at his disposal, especially tyres.
Despite making an excellent start to the season and leading the World Championship going into the German GP, during the last few races Dani Pedrosa has made it know to both Michelin and Honda that he doesn't feel at ease with the tyres that Michelin have offered him.
Honda and Michelin believe that rider confidence needs to be at its maximum if the rider is to fully exploit the tactical potential of the tyres.
In these circumstances Michelin and Honda have therefore decided not to equip Pedrosa with Michelin tyres for the remainder of the 2008 season.
Pedrosa comments: “I thank Michelin and Honda for their mutual understanding and for agreeing to my personal demands. I am very conscious of the fact that I have made some excessively negative comments about Michelin tyres, even though Michelin helped me make an exceptional start to the season.”
Both Honda and Michelin hope that MotoGP World Championship will continue with a multi-tyre brand regulation in 2009, Michelin will equip one of the Repsol Honda's two riders for the remainder of the 2008 season.'
And what the hell is Nicky Hayden going to be doing, riding around on Michelins while his team mate creams him for the rest of the season? What a disaster for the French firm.
A flurry of late qualifying runs shuffled the timesheets on the final afternoon of practice with Valentino Rossi ending the session as the fastest rider on Bridgestone tyres with a time of 1m39.568s. Several other Bridgestone riders were present in the top ten over the course of the test with some solid performances on race tyres. However, the final timesheets show that Bridgestone’s qualifying performance still needs to be further improved ahead of the season start in Qatar in three weeks’ time.
Q+A with Tohru Ubukata - Bridgestone Motorsport – Manager Motorcycle Race Tyre Development
What has Bridgestone managed to achieve over these three days with the mixed weather conditions?
“It was a difficult test for everybody with tricky track conditions over all three days. After the dry first day, we were able to carry out some wet weather tyre testing on Sunday, which was the first occasion for some of our riders to sample our wet specifications. In spite of those conditions, Casey did an exceptional job to set the quickest time and to win the car. On Monday, we had a brief shower at the start of the morning, but from then on it stayed dry, although with some quite gusty wind which was not helpful. We worked on evaluating tyres with a lower temperature compound range compared to the last tests in Sepang and Phillip Island to prepare for the Qatar night race and the Spanish GP in Jerez. We also continued to look closely at our qualifying tyres with many riders conducting detailed evaluation of different specifications.”
Has Bridgestone obtained all it needs from this test?
“Of course, we would have preferred a dry day on Sunday, but our riders worked really hard to get many laps in over the three days and we are grateful for their efforts. Today in particular we have seen some progress that we are sure will prepare us better for the race in March.”
In what specific areas does Bridgestone still need to improve qualifying tyres?
“We are quite happy with the durability of the qualifying tyres at this circuit, but it is clear that we are still in need of more grip to allow our riders to make an important step up in terms of lap time. Although our rivals continue to be very strong in this area, I believe we have made improvements since last year and even since the first test of this year. We tried several different specifications on Monday with different riders so we are sure that the variety of detailed feedback will benefit our development in this area.”
What is the plan for the next test in Qatar?
“Qatar test is going to be valuable, not only because it allows us to prepare our tyres for the opening race of the year at the same circuit, but also we will be following a night schedule for the first time. We will understand more clearly exactly what track temperatures we are likely to face and how that will affect our tyre performance by racing so late into the night. This will aid the tyre selection process on the Thursday of race weekend when our teams and riders must finalise the 22 rears and 18 fronts that they will have at their disposal according to the tyre restrictions.”
Published by Tasha Crook
Ti
Tire development is all about compromise. Make a tire too sticky and we’ll burn them up in a few hundred miles. Make a tire too hard and we’ll get the mileage we desire but sacrifice grip and warm-time. Integrate numerous tread cuts and it displaces water but compromises our coveted contact patch. We could continue or dissertation on compromise, but Pirelli believes that it’s found the right middle ground with a tire that can meet the needs of both 21st century man and machine.
Tire development is all about compromise. Make a tire too sticky and we’ll burn them up in a few hundred miles. Make a tire too hard and we’ll get the mileage we desire but sacrifice grip and warm-time. Integrate numerous tread cuts and it displaces water but compromises our coveted contact patch. We could continue or dissertation on compromise, but Pirelli believes that it’s found the right middle ground with a tire that can meet the needs of both 21st century man and machine.
The Pirelli squad mounted up a set of Diablo Rosso tires (120/70-ZR17 front and 180/55-ZR17 rear) on our 2007 Honda CBR600RR. With the tire pressure set (36 psi front, 42 psi rear), we hit the streets of Ventura County. Once under way, it became immediately clear that the tires do not offer the greatest feel. Throughout the street ride we felt disconnected from the road below. However, steering was extremely neutral and side-to-side direction changes were no better or worse than the OEM Bridgestones that were previously fitted. The lack of feel from the rubber made it difficult for us to really push hard through the curvy, mountain route that Pirelli had laid out for us. The few times we were able to man up and actually work the tires, they performed flawlessly without a hint of instability or lack of traction. In fact, adhesion levels felt very consistent. During our photo shoot, a few times we locked up the rear wheel to speed up the turn-around process, sliding the bike around 180-degrees. The rear rubber consistently slid, making us look like we actually knew what we were doing. Normally our CBR600RR delivers a relatively plush ride on the street for a 600cc sportbike. But with the Rosso underneath us, that smooth ride was compromised. The CBR’s tires normally work in unison with the suspension to help soak up some of the irregularities and bumps in the pavement, but the Rosso tires have a stiffness to them that translated every bump and pavement ripple directly through the bike.
Tags: tires, performance, wheel, motorcycle, pirelli
directories:
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |