No comments on Sepang sessions...? - Page 3

 


With a new engine configuration. aka Big Bang, or soft bang or
something.


Seems to me this year's Honda has a bigger fairing that is almost
identical to the Yamaha and not that dis-similar to the Ducati. And a
new frame. And new suspension. And everyone gets one. And yet Pedrosa is
still significantly faster than everyone else.


Edwards complained last year about lack of power when the engine
lifetime limits started to bite. But now he's saying how powerful this
year's engine is. It'll be interesting to see what he says 3-6 meetings
into the season.


If Espargaro ends up 3rd Ducati and close in times to Hayden then he
will have done well. And I think he might manage that. But then who
knows what Barbera will do. Run people off the track?

--
Julian Bond  E&MSN: julian_bond at voidstar.com  M: +44 (0)77 5907 2173
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                               Stay Awake

 

Julian Bond wrote:

http://www.motomatters.com/news/2010/02/05/honda_factory_and_satellite_bikes_identi.html

"By simply supplying the same bikes but with different electronics
packages, HRC can cut costs and increase efficiency in both
manufacturing and maintenance, while still controlling the performance
of the satellite machines through the electronics package. Each rider
has an HRC electronics specialist assigned to him anyway, and so this
does not change the existing way of working in the first place."

http://www.crash.net/motogp/news/156577/1/honda_no_data_sharing_since_2008.html

“So, at Repsol Honda, since 2008, data has been separate in the pit
garage,” Yamano revealed. “But development side the data is still
shared. Yamaha is starting [to do this] this year [but] we started in
2008.”

So the wall that went up when Pedro got 'stoned has never come down. And
electronics are the tap that gets turned by HRC. Oh, and I looked at the
photos at crash.net, and there are some very good comparisons between
Dani and Simo that are quite revealing...


I think it will, and how things play out in the comparative performances
of all four riders. Unlike when Honda was on top, at least there is some
potential that Yamaha has stayed somewhat hands-off in tweaking that
outcome...


I'm not quite so optimistic about Espargaro, it seems like any
(non-American) underdog  comes along and does anything, people start
jumping on the bandwagon. But I am quite enjoying Barbera posting faster
times than Simoncelli and especially Bautista (who turned down that
ride) so far...

 

Mark N wrote:

http://www.motomatters.com/news/2010/02/05/honda_factory_and_satellite_bikes_identi.html  

http://www.crash.net/motogp/news/156577/1/honda_no_data_sharing_since_2008.html  

Silly me, I forgot to mention the obvious again - Little Dani leads the
Honda way, and is followed in order by:

Dovizioso - down by 0.45 second on the other factory bike, is ~20-25
heavier than Dani.
Melandri - down by an even second on a satellite bike, back on the Honda
for the first time in 3 years (then on the new 800 DaniBike, when he had
his worst Honda year, even with Bridgestones in a Bridgestone year), is
30 pounds heavier than Dani.
de Puniet - down by 1.2 seconds on a satellite bike, is 25 pounds
heavier than Dani.
Aoyama - down by 1.4 seconds, a MotoGP rookie on a satellite bike, is 15
pounds heavier than Dani.
Simoncelli - down by 1.4 seconds, a prize MotoGP rookie, is 45 pounds
heavier than Dani.

Now consider that the two satellite Yamahas were 1.0 and 1.35 seconds
behind Rossi, with riders of roughly the same size (although Spies is
likely about 10 pounds heavier), and the satellite Ducatis 1.3 to 1.7
seconds behind Stoner, again all riders of roughly the same weight, and
there seems to be very little to be applauding Dani's performance, he
now into his 5th season as the lead rider at Repsol and the focus of
machine development at HRC.

 

On Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:01:15 -0800, Mark N


Why do you think it's the bike?  Stoner been the only person who can
ever go quick on that thing, and I neither see nor hear any suggestion
that his machine is in anyway significantly different to his
team-mates.  Or the Pramac bikes, for that matter.

--
Champ
neal at champ dot org dot uk

 

Champ wrote:

It may not be. But at this level, in roughly the front half of the
MotoGP grid, I just don't believe any rider is a second faster than
another purely on their own, these guys are riding so close to the
limits of the machines and tires that there just isn't that kind of gap
just on rider ability, not when they're on the same tires, have the same
sort of experience levels, etc. It may well be that the bikes are
identical, but that doesn't mean the bike hasn't been shaped for
Stoner's needs more than anyone else (and that's almost certainly the
case), including the electronics side of things, or that, as 2007
suggests, it just kinda turns out that way.

My point was that there is nothing new here, building a six-race life
big-bang motor hasn't changed the math significantly at Ducati. What
seemed to finally and generally be confirmed last year was that Ducati
makes a bike Stoner can ride (fast) and others can't, and that even
Ducati didn't quite seem to know why.

There's no doubt that some progress was made on that over the year, even
if they really don't know how or why, but to this point none evidenced
over the winter break, it still remains a Stoner bike. Now maybe Nicky
will continue to make progress and pass the satellite Yamahas and get
within 2 or 3 10ths of Casey, or actually race with him, and maybe we'll
see the real difference in ability (or weight!), but we're not seeing
that now, I don't think.