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/128373
MOTOGP I Preview Tamada, already a two-time MotoGP race winner, wifl be I_king to get his first win on Michelin tires. tracks on our schedule," he said. "And we are checking now if we can test also at Istanbul." The real battle is still held on Sunday afternoon, and, technically, Scholz admitted that Bridgestone was still getting over the catastrophic failures at Mugello last year (where Shinya Nakano survived a rear blowout at close to top speed). Its biggest 2005 priority was durability - especially with the Ducatis, which lack engine electronics to control wheelspin and are, as a result, very hard teams. There is also the question of qualifying tires. We prefer not to work with them, but if our competitors have already tested at a track, we will need to look for any advantage. And what about if Ducati or somebody decides also to make special qualifying motors, like F I? "It is a bad direction if costs continue to rise as they have in MotoGP for the past three years," Scholz added. "Already we have lost Aprilia. Tomorrow maybe Proton KR. After tomorrow perhaps Kawasaki and WCM. We will be left with a championship with only three on rear tires. manufacturers!" "We have quite a promising new rear profile," Scholz said. "The big demand in MotoGP is the increase in power," Scholz said to Michelin's Nicolas Goubert. "Nobody has told me yet how much more this year, but we will see top speeds rise again. last year, we made drastic improvements to the rear. By the end some riders were complaining about the front. Not Valentino or Max, but riders like Barros who use the front very hard. We will put a lot of emphasis on improving the front." And test teams' Of course Michelin will be obliged to service them, Scholz says, "but it is up to our partners. Nobody had said anything yet, but I am sure if Honda sees that their rivals get a big advantage, then they will have a test team, too, and then Yamaha also. "It's not forbidden to have a test team," he continued. "That is something that was left out of the rules. [This omission is likely to be mode good for next year - ed.] But I am disappointed because it is against the spirit of what we were talking about with Dunlop, and also Bridgestone, with Dorna - to try to control costs. Having a test team does exactly the opposite. But it's not only test RACING TO LOSE For every Honda, Yamaha or Ducat! rider who arrives at a GP with at least a notion of a rostrum finish, there are all the rest, those who haven't got a prayer: the Suzuki and Kawasaki riders, and those on the KRKTM. And that distant wailing sound? That'll be the WCM-Biata V-six, then. Why do they do it? What is the point of spending millions, literally millions, for another no-hoper Sunday afternoon? Out of the top results, often-as-not out of sight of the TV cameras, there are bigname motorcycles and quality riders, such as former World champ Kenny Roberts Jr. and John Hopkins on the Suzukis, or fast Japanese Shinya Nakano on the Kawasaki. And then the WCM, for whom a single point, or even a finish, marks a good weekend. longtime Suzuki team manager Garry Taylor, recently retired, isn't sure either. "Why do dogs chase cars?" he asked. "They probably don't even know. But racing is like a drug. For a lot of people in the factories, the GPs are just something that they do because they always have." This accounts for the race-department Confinved from poge 33 36 BATILE THREE - APRIL 13, 2005 • CYCLE NEWS fanatics. How about the decisionmakers at board level? They're not fans, and even if they are, they still have to satisfy the bean counters. "I think a lot of those people don't realize that the goalposts have moved," Taylor said. "It's become a lot more focused since we switched to four-strokes that actually bear some relation to street bikes. Yamaha realized this a couple of years ago and massively increased their level of commitment." The reward was not only winning the title. "Yamaha sales in Italy went up by something like 30 percent after Rossi won the title - that's a massive increase," Taylor said. Of course, there's always a dream, he continued, that this year's bike will be the breakthrough. But the dream often founders on a one-dimensional mode of operation. "Often they have just one plan," he said, "and if it doesn't work, there's nothing else - until the next pian for the next year." Rather than racing for glory, the factories seem to go through the process on the (not entirely fallacious) pretext of training engineers and developing technology. But don't rule out the dream factor. Kawasaki has poached senior Yamaha staff this year and copied its long-bang revised-firing-order engine. Will this make the difference? Well, if you keep on thinking so, perhaps it will. The others are different. Team KR goes racing on Kenny Roberts Sr:s ambition: to compete with Japan Inc. and to develop a race-engineering business on the F I model. So far, not so good, and after losing Proton backing, the firm is in dire straits. With the prospect of a good engine this year from KTM, however, there is still the chance of a brighter future. Hayden topped the charts at the final preseason IRTA test at Jerez and hopes to get his first win in MotoGP this season. Then there's WCM, the private team owned by American millionaire Bob Maclean. This is pure enthusiasm, and, according to team boss Peter Clifford, "the belief that one day you might become competitive:' It's certainly a ripping if expensive hobby. The team's latest venture, the Blata V-six, is a magnificent hobbyhorse, too. Hope it can qualify, at least. But all, according to Taylor, suffer from one delusion. "I don't think they realize how hard it is, how high the standard, and how much Honda and now Yamaha put into it." Ignorance is bliss, then. Just without the bliss. eN Gibernau will most likely be the man to give Rossi a run for his money in 2005.