MotoGP
Czech GP: Konica Minolta Friday notes
The hard work begins for the Konica Minolta Honda Team at Brno Today Shinya Nakano and his Konica Minolta Honda Team began the hard work needed to analyse their updated Honda RCV212V machines during the first practice sessions for this ...
Published: Aug 17, 2007, 8:22 PM
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The hard work begins for the Konica Minolta Honda Team at Brno
Today Shinya Nakano and his Konica Minolta Honda Team began the hard work needed to analyse their updated Honda RCV212V machines during the first practice sessions for this weekend's Brno MotoGP race. With new parts now online for the Team's 800cc MotoGP bikes, it proved to be a busy day to prepare both machines for today's two practice sessions. Shinya says that the updated Honda RCV shows more potential than the standard machine he's been campaigning so far this year, but now both Team and rider have to find a good base setting to realise that potential in time for Sunday's race.
Gianluca Montiron - Team Manager Konica Minolta Honda
"We need more time with these bikes to understand the characteristics of the new machines and the Team need to work more on the set-up of the bikes as the two hours today isn't enough to understand fully the improvement that these new parts provide. At the moment it may not look as though things have changed from the times and Shinya still is unable to push hard, but it is early days with the new machine and we have to change the settings so that Shinya can make the step forward in lap- times. The good thing is that the overall impression is good, but it will take time to get the best from this new technical package. Tyre choice will be critical, as similar to Laguna we are seeing weather conditions which aren't as warm as we expected, so it's important that we find a good tyre for the race on Sunday."
Shinya Nakano - Rider, Konica Minolta Honda (41 laps - 2' 00.793")
"The Team has been so very busy today preparing the new bikes. My first impressions are very good: we now have a bike that's smoother under both acceleration and braking. Unfortunately, after some laps with the good feeling the front-end chattering returned. We've already begun to fix the problem but so far we haven't found the solution. We will be trying lots of different things as this is effectively a new bike and its character is quite different, but today was important as we have now got a lot of data. This machine has much more potential than the standard bike so we have to take things step-by-step."
Giulio Bernardelle - Technical Director, Konica Minolta Honda
"We have had a very busy day today. Eventually we decided to make two new machines with the new parts, instead of back-to-back testing the old and new bikes. We did this as we realised the potential for the updated bike was greater than the standard machine. Because of this, we have been extremely busy as we start to understand this new Honda RCV212V and as we work to find the best setting for the new machines. Shinya's first comment is that the total character of the bike is smoother than before and that it feels easier to ride, but that the balance between front and rear still isn't perfect, so we will be working on the suspension tomorrow. Front suspension adjustments will be important, as it's still not so easy for Shinya to enter the corners as fast as he would like. The new machine gives us more adjustment and we understand that it has much more potential. Today, like Laguna Seca, the temperatures are lower than normally expected here for the time of year, but it is expected to be hotter tomorrow."
-credit: kmh
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