Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127600
. - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - -- 9INTERVIEW ~ 26 Well, not a grea t d eal at the momen t. We' re justthinking abo u t, safety-wise, what th e p ossibilities are for making them better. We've go t a he ll of a lot of horse power, b u t w e really can 't put th e p o w er down. We're no t really going for ward a ny m ore, we've just got these bikes th at ar e rea lly fas t in a st raight line, in acceler a ting, but we can' t get through th e turns as quickly as we coul d before. For one reason or another, whether it 's the tires or the amoun t of horsepower, I think the corne r speeds have come down a bit over the last few yea rs. And I thin k it' s just because of horsep ower an d / or tires. People w ill say th ings lik e "400 s" (us ing 400cc eng ines rat her than 500cc) a nd a ll that, a n d that's fi ne . You ' ll p roba bly do a fas ter lap tim e on a 400, but yo u put th em in a race w ith a 500, and a 500' s go ing to p a ss it a ll the tim e. Unl ess a 500 ge ts held up in a bit of tr affic and a 400 ca n ge t b y . Bu t w hen a 400 ge ts slo wed up ' it ' s n ot going to accelerate as hard as a 500 - if yo u do' get into traffi c, th e 500 is go ing to p ~ ss th e 400 every tim e. That's an an swer, but it 's not really the solution. Every one would ha ve to be on a 400. As I say, we were n' t actually talking abo u t an ything in particular on what to do, we were just try ing to get a few ideas going . Sounds like what you want to do is go even faster. Well , I th ink everybo dy wants to .d o that. What we want to d o is not only to go fas te r in speed , but in lap times. Like, Itch's H onda was d oin g 200 mph at Ho ckenheim th is year. I th ink that' s kind of lik e fa s t e no ug h , at th e moment a ny way. I'm su re th a t we'll ' all go faster eac h year, but tha t' s quite qu ick. But in '89 a Honda was doing 194 mph and fou r or five ye a rs later, we've o nly ga ined six m p h . I guess th at' s q ui te a lot when yo u re ad the fig u re . We're ju st tr ying to wo rk ou t how we can ge t th e power d own to the g ro u nd bet ter . W he ther w e nee d to p u t so me res trictors insi de, or whateve r, to ge t th e ,p o w e r do w n to t h e gro und eas ie r . A t the m oment, w e ca n ' t o pen the throttl e becau se th e thing ju st wa n ts to s p in o u t all th e tim e. We're jus t ge tti ng to o mu ch w heel sp in, but a t th e sa me time, to th e peop le observi ng, it doesn' t look like we're getting wheel spin because we can't ge t on th e throttle as early. Before, we used to get quite a lot of wheelsp in with the old style engine s, but we' d ge t o n the th rottl e quite early, aggressively, an d have it sliding. Now if yo u get on th e throttle th at aggressively with th ese new eng ines, with torquier-type engine s, th ey ju st kind of spin out. Like I say , we were only talking, and see ing wha t could be done, what his ideas were and what my ideas were. You know we can 't cha ng e the sport, but all we can do is put suggestion s forward on what we think might make it a little better for u s to keep go ing. At th e moment th e 250s ar en 't a t the lim it of adhe si on. Th ey're adding horsepower to them. Like from last year to th is yea r, th ey had a big g ain ' in power. And their Ia p times com e fa irly close to the 500s. Sometim es they would have qualified o n the front row, no problem. But aga in, that's in a flyin g lap . !f you put a 250 in th e race wi th th e 500s, you could s lo w down and ac t u ally slow ea ch othe r do wn. Then the 500 wou ld wa lk away from a 250 every time. Do you think active suspension could help you tum out faster laps? I'm sure i t cou ld, the bump s and eve rything in the circuit actually add up to lap times and whatev er . I guess --- Road Racer Michael Doohan it's the bumps and the u ndula tions in th e track. You 'd have to put it in to so me tests, and I d on ' t kn ow anybody a t th e moment w ho ' s tes ti ng active s uspension. Th ere' s a co m p u te r sus pension. Ho nda has one as we ll, but a t the sa me tim e it's not a night-and-day difference. An ac tive s uspe nsion, a full-on ac tive suspension , might be all right. I haven't really seen one on a car up close, b u t I g uess th er e' s a' lot of electronics invo lved w ith it and ma ybe we ha ven't g ot th e s pace a n d the weight for all tha t. !f the weight limit could be w here it was in ' 90, maybe we could ad d a few o f th ese th ings and keep going. But' we 're a t 130 kilo s (286 p o u n d s). We need every bit o f that a t the momen t to ha ve what we're ru nni ng now - 130 minimum. Nobody wa n ts to be mor e than that. I think it's 128 w ith the gas tan k off. So we try to be on the lim it all the tim e. I guess an extra kilogram of weight is ho rse power , so I gu ess you can add horsep ower or reduce weight - one of those thi ngs . Nob od y really wants to ' give a weigh t ad va n tage to the othe r guy. You've been using a hand-operated rear brake since your com eback. Have you had any trouble with it ? I'v e go t nothing but good th ings to say abo ut the way that b rake is worki ng. It' s 'w orking fine and people can say what they like ab out it. My team an d I know that it works as good - if not bet ter - than w ha t I had before. I've go t a handicap with my foot , b ut as far as I'm con cerned , once we do th is thing (pointing to his leg brace), I'll have no hand icap whatsoeve r. As far as rear b raking is concerned, w hy not? My h and w o rks as good as my foot to opera te th e rea r b ra ke. There was a problem on Saturday at Laguna Seca . In th e qualifyin g se ss io n th e b i ke dropp ed into n eu tr al and t he n dropped into fir st. That caused m e to cras h, but on Sunday ther e was no thing w rong . Tell us about the crash in th e British GP at Donington Park. We heard that the fans were a Ii ttl e tough on yo u after that. Did Kevin Schwantz have anything to say to you? No, and I never hear d anything abou t the fan s saying any thing either. It was jus t one of tho se things, it was a racing acci den t. It ' s n ot in my plan' when I cras h in to people. But I also th ink it wasn' t entirel y my fa ult. I h ad jus t p a ss ed Lu ca C ad al o r a down the straig ht - I'd drafted hi m down the re. And then he came in, he nearly hi t us all - probabl y because he was comi ng in the same as me. It wasn ' t like we were getting in there, we knew w here the corner wa s . It w asn 't like, "Oh we' re go ing to go sid e by side in that corner. " I kn ew where I was goi ng . And it was th e same w ith Kevin. I wasn 't accelerating o n Ke v in real hard. All of a sudden I was accelerating on Ale x (Ba rro s), an d I sa i d , "That's like Kevin to ou tbrake Alex." And then Ale x hit the b rakes even harder, because he's realized it's a chicane a nd he can 't go on th e o u ts ide and flick back in to th e line - it's jus t not goin g to work. Or else it was, "I 've got team orders," a nd he' s not all owed to beat Kevin or w hatever and he jus t decided to hit the brakes early. All of a sudden he's braking ha rd er and I can't pull up anymore. I neve r thou ght I was going to hit him, up until I act ually hit him . At the last minu te I turned away to try and av oid him , a nd jus t cau ght the back of him. It was one of those race accid ents. You kn ow we have so many close calls all the tim e, a nd we' re racing together w ithin a couple of millimeters at times - it' s jus t one of those things . This is the b race that Michael Doohan us es to straigh ten his leg, wh ich was bent'when he prematurely began rehabilitation followin g hi s break last June. Doohan turns the knob on th e right several times a day, which progressively aligns the three rings and straightens the bone. No rmally I'm not a late braker either. I'm no t one of those people who gets alongside people on the brakes, but it was jus t an unfortunate th ing. I nev er really thought it 'd ever happen, but in racing thi ngs happen all the time. , Kevin was fine abou t it, he realizes I di d n ' t pl an to do it. It was unfortunate. I felt bad for do ing it, because no matter w hat th e circumstances, I ran into somebod y and Kevin got brought d ow n by it. Kevin was in the lead for the champio ns hip , and it's ju st the way it went. It isn't the wa y it looks in that brief second on television . You r only win this season came at Mu gell o in Italy. Tell us about it. Yeah, it was a goo d ra ce. Th e Honda works we ll a ro und th ere, the Honda works well pretty much ev erywhere, but I like that circuit. I also wanted to win, it was the fir st time I s ta rte d to feel good on the bike. I d id everything I could to try and win, and it paid off. Un fortu nately th e next Grand Prix was Donin gt on and it wasn't so good . So, yo u ta ke the good with the bad , I guess. You said you'd be here a couple of months and then you'd start your testing program in December. Elf is testing in late December, early Jan ua ry. I guess Daryl (Beattie) will be d oing some tire testing and a little bit of deve lop men t testing as well in m idDecember. I'll be there if I can, but ther e's no rush. I'll be there in January, and that gives us three months before th e start of the season. We'll be testing quite a lot between January and the firs t rac e. Hopefully, that should give us a goo d sta rt to the season. I think it's going to be a good team. There's been a fair amount of controversy about John Kocinski. Have you had any problems with him? I ' ve neve r had any probl em s w i t h Jo h n, yo u know, he comes across to me all righ t. Everyone's got their problem s. Joh n's a hard rid er; I mean he's d oin g a goo d job on that Ca giva . I k now so me people have had some prob le m s w it h h im, but I've never seen anything fir st hand so I'm on ly going fro m what I hear. But John and I seem to get along all right. I can 't rea lly say anything what about the way he goes about things, that's his own pre rogative. Who has been your mentor? Who have you found inspiration from? I g u ess before I e ven started do ing Grands Prix and all, it w as Eddie Lawson. I'm not sure, I guess he wa s World Champion and th er e ain 't much more than tha t. He jus t seeme d smooth, and he was fast. So I guess that's why. Now that I'm racing, I don't try and em ulate anyon e, I jus t try and do the bes t I can. I have resp ect for just abo u t every rid er out ther e. I guess in some ways you have a similar style, he's sort of calm and col lected, and never seems to be ruffled. I guess it d oesn't d o you an y good to ge t fire d up too mu ch. I'm not su re. I guess I can't really com pa re myself to him, we're two different people. I just try to be like him, or Wayne (Rainey). I try to get a long with the job an d get along w ith th e people. Have you noticed anyone trying to emulate you? Not th at I know of, no . I jus t have to see what happens . I haven't won a championship yet, anyway. That's my b iggest aim , just to try and win a championship. Maybe then someone will th ink that I'm rid ing all righ t or whatever. I've fin ished close a few times, but second isn't good en ough second is losi ng. I just want to be better . !f I can do that maybe a few young guys will think that I'm doing all right. What's your goal next year? All I want to do is just w in the championship . But of co u rse - there are other guys out there that want to do the same thing, so that makes it a bit h ard . Th is year I wa s kind of up against it, especially after the wa y my le g was about healing. At least next year I' ll start fit for the full season, and I'll have as good a chance as an ybody else . If I wer e only going to compete for second or fourth or w ha tever, I'd probably just give it away now. eN