Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

• their riding styles were so different. Carl developed the bike to suit bim and he won some races. Then along came John Kocinski and he won the championship. John in the beginning had a lot of the problems that Colin and Carl had adjusting to the bike. He made the adjustment and did very well as the season progressed. . What's the main problem for these new guys? Learning the style of the bike, the characteristics of the bike - that's the biggest thing. It's a V-four motorcycle that's totally different from the in-line fours that most of them have ridden - Colin's always ridden in-line fours. A lot of them have complained about the front end, but I think it's more a rna tter of weight distribution, and people getting used to it. As Carl, Aaron and John have proved, people can win races on it and· win the World Championship. It gets to the point that you can't change the bike al1Y further, and the rider has to change his style eventually, and all the riders have found that. What sort of style change? Well, if you look at the way Aaron rides, he si ts very much over the fron t of the bike, with his weight over the front wheel; I think that's essential with the RC45. With John, he was such a small guy, he didn't have much weight anyway, so he ended riding it like a Grand Prix bike by the end of year. He'd go iJ;lto a corner very fast, stop it, turn it, then accelerate out hard. Carl wanted it to be more like a Duca ti, where he could fly in and carry a lot of corner speed, but it doesn't suit that style. If you do that and try and keep up the corner speed, you tend to run wide. So you have to learn to brake hard and wash the speed off and gas it ou t hard, and all the riders have done that. It's also about getting your weight over the front, because the bike lends itself to that sort of style, and that's what Colin's trying to develop. Still, you can't alter a rider's style' too much; you've got to have confidence in the bike. If you look at Colin on the track at the moment, he's not going into the corners fast enough, and he's the first one to admit that. So by the tin1e he tries to turn, he's lost too much speed anyway. I mean, he's only a second and a half off Aaron and a second off the other guys, so the little bits he's losing in the corners is not very far away. He's certainly closer this year than what John was last year. A lot of people forget that , while John won in the wet here last year, he finished seventh in the dry race, but in the end he was winning races in the dry. Was it simply a change in style rather than a change in setup? He changed his style and rode the bike differently. I think he was lucky that he won some races in the wet, which gave him great confidence with the bike and carried through to his dry-track results. He won here in the wet and then in Misano, and when you start winning races, it gives you more and more confidence" regardless of the conditions. It really did start to show around Monza, which coincided with his change'in style. What has been the biggest change in the RC45 since 1994? . .Without a doubt, the suspension, to ride the bumps much better. The assistance from Showa has been tremendous, and they've finally come up with suspension that suits the bike. We· used to have problems with the front wheel hopping over the bumps rather than riding through them, so the wheel would lose contact, particularly here around the back, so the front would go away. I think improving the suspension back .and front and obviously giving the bike a bit more horsepower have been the biggest changes. In World Superbike, you can't change the frame. What about tires? When we came in with Michelin in '94 (Castrol Honda actually used. Dunlops in 1994 at Doug Polen's request), all their development was with Ducati and not with any four-cylinder-bike superbike. They did in Grand Prix, but for a different type of bike. Michelin have now built tires around the bike to suit it, and that, combined with the suspension, has improved the bike tremendously. What role does the computer and telemetry play in bike development? Well, I'm an old style of rider. I've been at this game for 30 years, so I feel it has its limits. Rider feedback is the important thing, there's no question. It doesn't rna tter wha t the telemetry tells you; if the rider tells you that it is doing this in his mind and tells you he wants it softer and the telemetry says harder - generally that doesn't happen. The telemetry will back up what the rider feels. A good rider at this level can do that. The other thing with the telemetry is that it's a factory team, and they're building road and race bikes for the future, and information from this bike is fed bac.k to Japan. Racing will highlight any strengths or weaknesses, so that will in1prove the next production bike. Is there any new race bike in the pipeline? It's no secret Honda is developing the new VTR1000. Now, whether that's going to replace the RC45 - that's a head-office decision. Will the VTR complement the RC45 in a race program? One thing with the twin, with what Suzuki and Honda are trying to achieve, is bring about a bike that can be raced by privateers. The problem with the four-cylinder bikes, and the Ducatis, because of their reliability problems, is they're very expensive for privateer teams to run, and vne of the big worries in superbike is that if you take away the 11 factory riders, there's not a lot left after that. One thing with the VTR1000 is that it should be a very competitive bike and inexpensive to run in comparison with the four-cylinder bikes. So the idea is to make a cost-effective privateer bike for Honda America, Honda U.K., or Honda Australia to race competitively. Whether we as a works team will use the VTR1000, I haven't been told one way or the other. It's an HRCdecision. Is the off-season always a busy time for you? Testing is always a busy tin1e. I find January and February tremendously busy on my side, sorting out all the contracts, organizing fue sponsors, testing and the like - there's so much going on. The easiest day of the year is usually race day. I've always got a saying that if I'm rushing around on race day, I haven't done everything right up until race day. Definitely, if things have gone right, it's the easiest time. Back in the. office is a tremendous amount of work because I have to deal with publicity and press work, sponsors and entertainment, the hundreds of letters we get from fans, as well as the general running of the team, hotel bookings, arranging fuel, etc. How does the arrangement work with the rider's crew chief? You'll never see me talking to a rider during a practice session or a race. The system means the rider has only got to talk with the cl1ief mechanic, 'the suspension technician and possibly the tire technician. I raced for 21 years, so I know how the rider feels and what he wants, whicl1 is not having to talk to 20 people after each stint. It's up to the chief mechanic to allocate what needs doing, and it's my job to make sure.that happens by keeping other people away from the rider. At the end of the day, I'll talk to the chief mechanic to see how things went, and talk to the Japanese, but J may not speak to a rider for the whole day. J don't need to. What is communicated to the Japanese? After each race we 'do a report, normally about 50 pages long, which J do along with the chief mechanics who provide the information from tl1eir spec sheets, test sheets, tire charts, and I do reports on all the other teams. Do you still do the team debriefing sessions? We find it better if the chief mechanic does it directly with the rider. W.e used to do a combined meeting where we discussed all the information, but we tended to change that last year and it's working quite well. . Was the previous system a bit unwieldy? . I think it took too long for the riders, because they had to sit through everyone's information. At the end of the day, the guys were pretty tired and fed up. So it's easier making shorter sessions and analyzing the information they've got. Was Kocinski good to work with? People are always asking me that. John was very different to work with, that's what I'd say. John's had a problem with every team he's worked with. Luckily for us, he said he enjoyed his time with our team more than anywhere else. I think you have to develop a system with John. He needed a lot of personal treatment. J tried to analyze where things had gone wrong with the other teams. Basically, everyone tried to help John with riding but nobody looked after his· life very much. I tried to get involved in that aspect. Organization's very in1portant to John, and we put a big importance on that. He knew every minute of the day where he had to be, what he had to do, and I think that was important and we got on really well. I hope for Honda's sake that it all works out with Sito Pons and the 500 Grand Prix team. You see, the secret with John is not giving him bikes and mechanics. The secret with Jqhn is looking after all the other little aspects of his life, because he has a set way of working, a set way of what he does. People may not agree with the way John does things, but it works for him - he's happy doing it tl1at way and he goes out and wins races for you. I think all fue problems he had wifu other teams was that they didn't look a fter the other side once he got off the bike, making sure things were working the way he wants, which is what we put a lot of effort into, and it worked out really well and I don't have a problem with that. I mean, Aaron's entirely different from John; Carl was entirely different; Simon Crafar, Colin Edwards they're all different personalities and need to be treated in different ways. My job is to find the right people to do each job - whether it's a rider, mechanic, press officer - and leave them to get on with it, and if there's a problem, or any way. I can help them, that's when I'll step in. I don't tell the mechanics how to build bikes, I don't tell Chris (Herring) how to do his press job, and I don't tell Aaron how to ride a bike. I just let them get on and do tlle job, and if it's not working, then we'll look at the problems. Was there any push to hold Kocinski back in the team to keep the numberone plate for '98? Well, 1 mean it was Honda's decision to put him in the Grand Prix team and John wanted to go, so it's not like he's left us and joined Yamaha. People could s'ay the same thing about Biaggi. He could have kept the number-one plate in 250, but he's gone to 500s as well. Obviously, there's a feeling that Honda have got enough people in 500, but that was an internal decision between John and Honda, so who am I to question it? . Did you say, "I'd prefer it if John stays"? No. I said I was quite happy to work with John again if he was going to stay in superbike, but if Honda had other plans for him, [ was not going to object. Were you heavily involved with the signing' of Colin Edwards? Castrol were very interested. You've got to appreciate it's very political at this level, and obviously Castrol have a big say. They're a big sponsor, they've put a lot of money in and certain markets are in1portant to them. They were very disappointed to lose John. One, he was World Champion; two, he's American, and Castrol had just broken in to the American market last year, so they were .very keen to sign an American rider. When Colin became available when the Yamaha deal fell through, we took him on. It wasn't like we pinched hin1 from Yamaha. Obviously, he fit into the program of what Castrol wanted, by having an American rider in the team. They've already got Aaron from this part of the world; I knew he was good friends wifu Aaron, and he's a nice guy and easy to work with. How do you rate him as a rider? I rate him very well. I'm not trying to pull the Yamaha down, but it's a bit long in the tooth. I mean, Yamaha themselves admit they've done no new development this winter, because they're waiting for the new bike in '99. Colin knew that situation, so it's fue best opportunity Colin's had, really. To behonest, it got to the limit where he could with the Yamaha. He came 'as close as he could to winning a race here in '96. He knows the Honda's a winning macl1ine. It'll be very interesting to see how it progresses. Certainly, Aaron's the one we're expecting to be successful early on, but we're hoping Colin keeps improving. His test has gone very well here. He's gradually in1proved things; we're changing things accordingly. ObViously, if we didn't rate him, we wouldn't put him on fue bike. Was there anybody else you were looking at? Well, there were other riders we were interested in, but they weren't in the areas Castrol particularly wanted a rider from. [ mean, we had a qig interest in a rider here from Australia, but Castrol weren't interested in whoever it was, even if he's a World Champion, because we've already got a New Zealand rider. We don't need two riders from this part of the world. A lot of 'people don't understand that at this level, that it isn't necessarily the best rider (we're looking for). It's very political, and market-drivenas well. Is that frustrating for a team? It can be frustrating for a team but it can also be very frustrating for a rider, because 'he knows the only reason he can't get a ride is because of his nationali ty. Tha t's the case even more so in Grand Prix than in World Superbike, because of the power of the tobacco sponsors.' fN

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