Regarding Pedrosa

 
I didn't know much about him before this year as I do not watch the
wrings-dings, but I it's apparent the kid has talent and from the looks of
it so far, his size isn't holding him back too much either. Having said
that, I think it's ludicrous to say his size, or weight is anything but a
major plus regarding top speed. It's been said that 5 lbs. equates to about
7, or 8 hp on top end and from my experience I believe it. Ask any drag
racer, or Bonneville guy and they'll tell you the same thing. If he was down
on top speed it may have very well been his lack of ass coming onto the
straight allowing the rear to spin that hurt his top speed. I seriously
doubt it had anything to do with wind resistance, or the lack of it.

An aside to Pab and just to give a heads-up, I'm gonna be hungry and thirsty
at Laguna.  ;-)

 

I was never among the crowd theorizing that dwarfish size makes for a
disadvantage. As I said before, the era of riders having to physically
manhandle overpowered and nearly unrideable bikes seems to have been over
for a while. Moreover, there have been rider before that were even shorter
than Pedrosa. The Great Roberts Sr being a notorious one, surprisingly (to
me).


Look at the Le Mans (a notorious high speed circuit) stats, and also
statements from Eckl (the expert commentator on MotoGP despite his Kawa
role). It's measured, and Pedrosa is severly lacking in top speed right now
compared to others. Here are the top speed results from Le Mans:

27 Casey STONER AUS Honda LCR HONDA 295.8
21 John HOPKINS USA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 292.0
46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Camel Yamaha Team YAMAHA 288.2
56 Shinya NAKANO JPN Kawasaki Racing Team KAWASAKI 285.3
15 Sete GIBERNAU SPA Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 284.1
17 Randy DE PUNIET FRA Kawasaki Racing Team KAWASAKI 284.1
69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 283.8
7 Carlos CHECA SPA Tech 3 Yamaha YAMAHA 279.2
5 Colin EDWARDS USA Camel Yamaha Team YAMAHA 276.5
65 Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 276.3
10 Kenny ROBERTS JR USA Team Roberts KR211V 274.9
33 Marco MELANDRI ITA Fortuna Honda HONDA 273.8
26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 271.8
77 James ELLISON GBR Tech 3 Yamaha YAMAHA 269.3
24 Toni ELIAS SPA Fortuna Honda HONDA 268.0
71 Chris VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 267.9
30 Jose Luis CARDOSO SPA Pramac d'Antín MotoGP DUCATI 266.3
6 Makoto TAMADA JPN Konica Minolta Honda HONDA 262.6
66 Alex HOFMANN GER Pramac d'Antín MotoGP DUCATI 260.1

That is singnificant, and seems to indicate no aerodynamic work on Pedrosa
has been done (yet). I have little doubt that with some tailored work his
size should be an advantage in top speed terms, too, but right now it seems
a liability. One could assume he's breaking earlier than others where the
top speed is being measured, but that seems unlikely given where he's
placing on the grid. He can't be braking earlier than others in the fastest
part of the circuit, that woulod be counterintuitive to his lap times. 15mph
to Stoner's top speed seems a lot, though.


Me too. Look forward to it, no matter who's tap it turns out to be. ;-)

...pablo

 
I guess that stop the discussion on top speed advantage. He certaily doesn't
lack anything in general speed.

Right now he's my buest guess for the championship next to Rossi. No way
Hayden will be able to stay in the lead without victories. After all, the
point-system is buildt to avoid that the second best win due to a
missfortune or two by the best. That's why it take more than consistency to
win most of the time, fortunatly. :-)

BTW, Hayden is welcome to win the CS but he has to up the pace.

/MBE

 Morten Becker-Eriksen wrote:


Well, folks, here we have the classic Euro viewpoint, dismissing the
American rider. As Noyes said, "But the perception by the European press
is that Hayden was skipped over because HRC did not consider that he was
capable of developing the bike. The fact that Italian Marco Melandri
took runner-up spot in the championship, winning the final two races of
the season, led the European press to the conclusion that Hayden was not
making it... With that bike, a lighter, narrower version of the RC211V,
he is leading the points table, but not being taken seriously in the
European press as a title challenger because he has not had a win since
that first one at Laguna Seca last July." Etc.

Mort, Hayden isn't going to win the championship without winning a race.
Just like Pedrosa and Rossi aren't going to win the championship by
winning only 20% of the time and DNFing 20% or more of the time. And
Melandri and Capirossi aren't going to win it by finishing outside the
top five 40% of the time. That's what all of them have done so far, and
whoever wins the thing will have to do better, step up and better their
disadvantages so far. They all have to step it up if they are to win it.

 
Or one of them has to screw up slightly less than the others.

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