Submitted by David Emmett on
The weather held out in southern Spain, and HRC decided to use another of the eight days of testing on the 2012 machines to send Casey Stoner out again to test Honda's new MotoGP machine for next year. Dani Pedrosa had been scheduled to ride the bike, but the race crash at Le Mans which saw him break his collarbone put an end to the Spaniard's plans. So instead, HRC sent Stoner out for a second day of testing.
Afterwards, the team issued a brief press release, as well as a short clip of Stoner riding the new bike, which also included interviews with Stoner and Shuhei Nakamoto, Vice President of HRC. Naturally, the clip has a music soundtrack over the top, to mask the sound of the engine. The tiny fragment we do have of the bike exiting the pits sounds an awful lot like the existing bike at the same revs. We shall have to wait until Mugello to hear the bikes in full.
Here's the video:
Below is the text of the press release:
Stoner on track again with Honda 2012 prototype
Air Temperature: 25 degrees
Ground Temperature: 35 degrees
Humidity: 51%
After a positive first day test, HRC decided to continue testing the 2012 prototype today with Casey Stoner
The original plan was to have a one day test with Stoner and one with Pedrosa, however, due to the outcome of events from last weekend in Le Mans with Dani's injury, HRC decided to complete one more day with Casey and test rider Ito Shinichi in order to finish the planned testing program.
With windy conditions and temperatures a little cooler than yesterday, Stoner ran 25 laps in the morning without any issues and Shinichi took over in the afternoon. HRC engineers were happy with the data acquired.
Researchers from the Repsol Technology Centre travelled some days ago to Saitama (Japan), where Honda is developing a new 1000cc motorbike that will compete in the MotoGP World Championship from 2012. Coordinated with their Japanese counterparts, Repsol experts started to develop a specific fuel and lubricant for the new bike, which was driven yesterday and today for the first time by Casey Stoner in this private test held at Jerez Circuit.
Comments
Why the soundtrack? How
Why the soundtrack? How annoying..............
Everyone else has plenty of work to do........................
Interesting counterpoint
Perhaps it's just a difference in the view on presentation, or perhaps HRC is feeling sufficiently confident about the bike to let everybody see a bit of it in action, but one striking difference to me with the HRC video release and the previous Ducati one is that the HRC one appears to be presented at real-time speed, not the 'freeze - fast forward - freeze' melange that comprised a lot of the Ducati release - at least the one I watched.
If I have been unfair to Ducati and they did release some unedited footage of the bike in action, I hereby unreservedly apologise. I'm not suggesting any deep conspiracy, merely stating that I felt far more satisfied that I had some feeling for what the bike was actually doing on track after watching this release.
it looks
Stoners looks good on the 1000cc bike! smooth and fast!
love the dark lines from the rear.. so that means its not on fuel conserve mode..
Seems only Aussies interested
Seems only Aussies interested in this, looks to have a much more slippery shape.
8 days only
If all teams are only allowed 8 days of testing, why would Stoner/HRC only do 25 laps? Surely you'd want to pound out as many laps as possible to get as much data as possible right?
cameras and english
Has anyone an explanation why HRC goes to such lengths and brings in a complete camera team to film Casey doing some test laps?
And Shuhei Nakamoto has to have some other qualities than speaking English to keep his HRC Vice President position. Unusual for a high ranking Japanese.
It's a Dorna team
It's a Dorna team, who also filmed the Ducati test at Jerez. Good publicity for the series.
POWER
MotoGP riders are in another world. Casey was casually saying it was nice having the additonal power. The 230-240 horsepower the 800 has, just isn't enough. LOL Another demonstration that we mere mortals can't really relate to what these guys do.