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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128396
They didn't have the bike, for one, in the days of 750cc fours against IOOOcc twins. What do you reckon to the fours vs. twins debate in 2005? Is there more parity now? I think there always was parity this year. In previous years, when there were 750cc fours, there was no direct comparison. I don't think there is anything now between the twins and the fours. I think one is stronger in one area and vice versa, but at the end of the straight, we both arrive there at the same speed. I don't think there is any advantage on any of the bikes at the moment. like that for years. Pretty much, I think, just because the bike was built so well in Japan and Yukio tested it a lot, developing the bike. That's maybe one reason why Yukio is so fast even at new tracks: He doesn't have to learn the bike. He can get the setup how he likes it. If he can't, he reverts to my settings, and they are not so far apart anyway. We use a different rear spring; that's about the only difference. It's not like I didn't have much feel from the front because of someone else's setup. Igot comfortable on it straightaway. It was similar to when I got on the Aprilia. I just thought this would be an easy bike to ride, and it is. How much does the bike help you in real race situations? I've pushed 100 percent this season - not necessarily every lap of every race, because I haven't had to. How factory is this team compared to other teams you've been in, as this is an era with no official Japanese factory teams? I think this team is better organized than any factory team organization - Idon't think this is any less organized than a factory team. And we don't have teams of Japanese engineers on the bike - we have two. They come to oversee the whole project, but that's about it. That's part of the reason for our success: Everyone is happy with how it works. So, why have things happened this year for Alstare when they haven't in previous years? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _---' Other riders have had problems with tires this year in that they can test tires with the same batch number time and time again, then one doesn't work as expected. You don't seem to have had these problems. We get them, sure. I don't know if it's luck or whatever, but we find we get them in practice session, just one of the tires out of the rack, but we have been getting them. I don't know why this would happen, but it has to be down to quality control, how they finish the process. I'm really not sure. At the beginning of the season, we don't know but we were quite sure we were getting stock from last year mixed in with stock from this year. They were different compounds so they can reintroduce them, but they were actually made last year. So some of them may have been sitting in a warehouse, and that can have an affect on them as well. They might have the same number, but they are built differently. Maybe they are just trying to get rid of some of their stuff as well and not end up with a warehouse full of tires that didn't work. It is expensive for Pirelli to produce enough tires for everyone to get the same; sometimes they have to wait until they go to the new stuff. The tires have been improving, which is good, but they are still not going from the first laps until fIVe laps from the end to drop off. They do about four or five laps and then they drop, then stay that way until the end. They are sort of the wrong way around. But it depends on the tracks also. Some tracks that we thought were going to be abrasive, we turned up at and they haven't got the right tires. When they tested there with other test teams we've never done a test at all with Pirelli yet, to build ---"C __C='"-LE NEWS • SEPTEMBER 21, 2005 __Y tires with us and everybody - like at Brno and Germany, another Pirelli test we didn't go to, they go and test, and we turn back up there for the race and the tires that they used at the test don't work anymore. So what's changed? It can't change that much. But for me, at the end of the day, we are all on the same stuff. If we all have the same choice, the same range of tires, that's okay. Is that one of the good things about World Superbike now, that everyone has access to the same stuff? Not really. I think it is a great idea, a great concept sure, because then everyone has the same ability to get the grip. It's just that sometimes it would be nice to have better grip. The racing isn't as fast, and it's probably a bit more dangerous, because we are sliding a bit more than we should be - because we are trying to go fast. I'm surprised there haven't been more crashes - because there haven't been that many - considering how the grip is on the tires and how we all struggle at some tracks. Brno was a classic example. We only changed the bike marginally, put another rear tire in and the bike felt so much better. Came back in and put in the original tire and the bike felt bad. So we know it wasn't setup, we knew it was because that tire wasn't the same as that one. Same number, same everything. I know that's what happened with Dames] Toseland and [Regis] Laconi in the second race. They just didn't get a tire that worked as well as the previous one, but I know Nori [Haga] did. Nori got a great one, because when he came past, his wasn't moving, so you can see the difference it makes. How do you feel about Assen? It's never been my favorite track, because it's one of those where you really have to take a risk. If you want to be fast, you have to take some risks by being qUick tipping it in and making sure you don't run off the side of the track on the outside. If you are not worried about that there, then you can be fast there and hard to beat:Assen for me is a bit of a joker card. We know it's going to be a close race, especially as they have that new part out the back of the pits and so on. It's going to be different for everyone. We just do the best we can every weekend. 43