Press releases from teams in the MotoGP, World Superbike and Moto2 teams at tracks across southern Spain:
Lowes on top as Voltcom Crescent Suzuki complete winter testing in Jerez
Voltcom Crescent Suzuki’s Alex Lowes leaves the Circuito de Jerez in Spain today top of the combined times after four days testing in preparation for the 2015 FIM Superbike World Championship.
The impressive pace shown by Lowes during Tuesday’s dry-running was enough to retain the fastest time from his closest rival, Kawasaki’s newly-mounted Jonathan Rea. With heavy rain marring the majority of the team’s final day, Lowes chose not to test in the wet conditions, completing just three laps on his Yoshimura-powered GSX-R.
Championship rookie, Randy de Puniet, concludes his first test aboard the Suzuki GSX-R1000 in fifth position, having gained confidence quickly with both his new team and machine. Braving the Spanish rain for 22 laps today, the Frenchman improved his wet-running pace from Monday afternoon, to enter the winter break confident with the progression made throughout the week.
Voltcom Crescent Suzuki will now return to its UK headquarters to continue the winter preparations ahead of the opening pre-season test at Portugal’s Portimao Circuit, scheduled for 21st January 2015.
Alex Lowes:
“It’s been a good week, I’m happy to finish the year feeling confident and with a renewed optimism about the 2015 bike. It’s slightly frustrating that we didn’t get more of an opportunity to test everything we had planned but I’m happy with the overall performance. I’m feeling positive and stress-free heading into the winter which is always important. Thanks to the Voltcom Crescent Suzuki team for this year, we will try to improve next year and come back strong in pre-season testing in January.”
Randy de Puniet:
“It has been a very good test for us. Everything was new for me but the adaptation was quick, the team are very professional and so it was very easy for me to work and to understand the bike. I’m very satisfied because we ran in the dry and the wet and in both conditions we were quick so I’m confident. It’s good to finish the year on a positive note and to be ready for next year.
“I have many things to learn over the winter with the new riding style and I will watch videos of the Superbike races to try to understand many things, but I’m quite confident. I can leave here in a good place, concentrate on my training and be fit for the first race.”
Paul Denning- Team Manager:
“Today’s very poor weather meant that we just did some limited running in the wet which was particularly useful to Randy, as it’s a new bike to him in these conditions. Overall, the four-day test has been a significant success; the 2015 Yoshimura engine has been a revelation and gives us a good step-forward compared to 2014, and the riders and the team have all worked professionally to make sure that all the testing has properly evaluated all the options.
“Phillip Island and the first race of 2015 is really not very far away, and there is still an awful lot to achieve to optimise our performance before then, but this week in Jerez has been an extremely good start to the new season.”
TEAM FEDERAL OIL GRESINI MOTO2 WRAPS UP 2014 WITH PRODUCTIVE ALMERIA TEST
The Team Federal Oil Gresini Moto2 Team completed today at the circuit of Almeria the last day of testing of 2014 before the mandatory winter break: Xavier Siméon took advantage of the last chance of the year to continue to familiarize with the Kalex machine that he will use during the 2015 campaign, putting in 48 laps and getting a very positive feedback.
XAVIER SIMEON
“We ended the year in a positive way, completing between Valencia and Almeria four days of testing that have allowed us to become familiar with the Kalex chassis that we will use in the next season. Also today, my sensations were positive and we have been able to work on the bike set-up in a very profitable way. It was important to start in the best possible way our winter preparations: now we know that we can already count on a good base when we will return to the track for the next test, in 2015”.
FEVER HAMPERS BASTIANINI'S TESTING SESSION AT ALMERIA
Enea Bastianini could not take advantage of the last two days of testing of 2014 due to the high fever that didn’t allow him to get on track at the Almeria circuit neither yesterday, nor in the final day of planned activity, today. For this reason, the 16-year-old rider from Rimini was unable to continue the work started last week at Valencia on the Honda NSF250RW machine.
The team Gresini Racing Moto3, therefore, wraps up the year without the opportunity to take advantage of the last days of testing available before the winter break. However, waiting to get back on track next February to continue the preparation for the 2015 season, the team can count on the good feelings achived during the first outing of Valencia.
THE APRILIA MOTOGP PROJECT IS DEVELOPING NICELY
THREE DAYS OF TESTING AT JEREZ, LOTS OF WORK FOR THE RIDERS AND THE TEAM AND EXCELLENT END RESULTS
MELANDRI AND BAUTISTA TOOK THE NEW V4 WITH PNEUMATIC VALVES ONTO THE TRACK
Jerez (Spain), 27 November 2014 - Three full days of work for the riders and the team marked the second time on the track for the Aprilia MotoGP project. After the Valencia tests two weeks ago Alvaro Bautista and Marco Melandri got back in the saddle of their Aprilia MotoGP bikes to prepare for the 2015 season.
Once again the weather unfortunately conditioned the progress of the testing schedule, especially on the last day (Thursday), with continuous showers and a constantly wet track.
Despite the stops and goes dictated by weather conditions, the Aprilia bike managed to confirm the fact that it "hatched well", a fundamental quality for the development schedule to proceed consistently.
At Jerez the Aprilia riders were able to gain familiarity with the new V4 powerplant for the first time, an engine characterised by pneumatic valves. The engine, which guarantees higher levels of power than the first version with conventional valves, made its début on Wednesday since the work on Tuesday centred around fine tuning the electronics and set up with the old version.
131 laps were logged in Alvaro Bautista's 'three days', with his best time stopping the clock at 1'40.6, whereas Melandri lapped 123 times, putting in a 1'41.5 for his best time.
There is still a long road of growth ahead, but the indications that came out during the tests on the Andalusian track left the entire Aprilia team satisfied and feeling positive as they head into the winter break. Testing will resume on 4 February with the official session in Malaysia on the Sepang track.
Romano Albesiano: "Despite the poor weather we collected a lot of information, mostly positive. This was our first chance to get in some extensive use of the new pneumatic valves engine which proved to be quite promising both in terms of maximum power and manageability, despite all the work that still needs to be done on a mapping level. Alvaro continues to increase his engagement with Aprilia in a positive way, in terms of performance as well, although there is still plenty of room for improvement. As for Marco, he is continuing his apprenticeship on the Bridgestone tyres, a rather complex issue that would have needed the full three days of testing so one that will have to be postponed to the next tests in Sepang."
Alvaro Bautista: "We can be satisfied with the way things went, even if the foul weather slowed down our work. During the first day I continued using the bike in the same configuration as the recent tests in Valencia. We concentrated on the chassis set up, finding a few solutions that I liked and the allowed us to get to know the bike fully. On the second day I was able to use the new pneumatic valve engine. It has a lot of power but there is still a lot of work to do in terms of distributing it. Today we took a few laps in the wet which were useful in any case to assess the characteristics of the new engine in these conditions. Now we will start the winter break. I'll take a bit of a rest to recover from this long season, after which I'll get back to training so that I'm ready for the tests in February. In the meantime I will definitely be paying a visit to Aprilia to see the hard work the engineers are doing on the bike up close and in person."
Marco Melandri: "These were three interesting and very demanding days at the same time. Lap after lap I am figuring out more and more where I need to improve and what I need in order to feel at ease. I still feel quite self-conscious. I think we'll need to put in a few kilometres to find the right feeling. The new engine had a few growing pains, which is normal in this phase, but we have already seen what its positive sides are and where we will need to concentrate on improving it. We have a long period of down time ahead of use which we'll use for development so that we're ready for the Sepang tests. All the guys are working hard and the whole team is very enthusiastic. This is an atmosphere that gives me high hopes."
Track activity for the Ducati Team in 2014 concludes with two days of testing at Jerez
The Ducati Team successfully wrapped up its programme for 2014 with two days of testing at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit in Andalusia (Spain), where next year’s factory team duo of Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone were out on track together with a number of other MotoGP and SBK riders. Also present was test-rider Michele Pirro, who continued development work with the Desmosedici ‘lab’ bike and who will remain for one extra day tomorrow.
Today’s action was conditioned by the rain that fell overnight, and with the addition of a winter cold snap and constant showers this made it impossible to put in a good amount of laps. On Wednesday however, in much more favourable conditions, the two Andreas were on the pace straight away with their Desmosedici GP14.2 machines.
Both riders set good times after working mainly on electronics and set-up. With a time of 1’38.9, Dovizioso ended Wednesday at the top of the timesheets, ahead of his new team-mate Iannone, who was second in 1’39.0; their times remained unbeaten today.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’38.9
“We had to do set-up testing to get some exact information for next year’s bike. We did a good job yesterday, lapping all day and everything went well. I set a really good lap time, our record at Jerez. Even though I don’t put a lot of importance on these times because many of our rivals were not here, it still gives you a lot of pleasure. Above all we were quick all day on used, hard and soft tyres, so this is even more confirmation that the bike has improved since mid-season and that we went better than what we did at Jerez in the race. Today I didn’t do any more laps because of the weather conditions, but there wasn’t much else to test.”
Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team #29) – 1’39.0
“Yesterday was quite a positive day because we were able to try out various set-ups for the bike, eliminate some doubts and confirm what we had already tested at Valencia. In the end I lapped quicker than what I did in the GP race. Even with the hard tyre I managed to do a good time and maintain a good pace, so I am quite happy about how this last test of the year went. We have accumulated a lot of good information for the new bike over the last two days. I’m also happy with the team, I like my new group of guys a lot and I’m pleased with the way we work in the box.”
Michele Pirro (Ducati Test Team #51) – 1’40.5
“All things considered yesterday was quite good because we tried a lot of stuff with the electronics and with the chassis components. My best lap was 1’40.5, which wasn’t that quick, but we weren’t aiming for a fast time. Today we continued working on the electronics in the wet conditions, while tomorrow we’ll do some tyre testing.”
This test wraps up the Ducati Team’s programme of activities for 2014. The Italian squad will next be back in action with Dovizioso and Iannone at the first IRTA test of the new season, scheduled for Sepang in Malaysia, from 4 to 6 February 2015.
Guintoli and van der Mark complete Jerez test
Sylvain Guintoli and Michael van der Mark have completed their first shakedown tests on the Pata Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP during a private test at Jerez in Spain which concluded yesterday afternoon.
The four-day test was plagued by rain showers, including a completely wet day on Thursday, which limited track time for the two new Pata Honda World Superbike riders. However, both expressed satisfaction at their first rides on Honda’s flagship production sports bike.
Carrying the number one plate for the first time, Guintoli, spent his first laps on the Fireblade getting accustomed to a different engine configuration compared to the machine on which he won this year’s World Superbike championship title.
However, the 32-year-old French rider gave his new team, including crew chief Flavio Prodolliet, some valuable feedback and a positive response to the 1000cc in-line four cylinder machine, particularly its refined chassis and handling characteristics.
For young Dutch flyer van der Mark it was an entirely new feeling to experience the raw power of a SBK-specification race bike, despite winning the last two editions of the famous Suzuka 8-hour World Endurance race on Honda’s CBR1000RR Fireblade.
The 2014 World Supersport champion, 22, started the Jerez test with a minimum level of electronics in order to fully appreciate the full-power Fireblade, with traction control and other rider aids gradually increased during the four days of testing.
Sylvain Guintoli
It’s been a really positive first encounter with my new team and the CBR. It’s clearly a different machine to what I’ve been riding for the last two years so this test was really all about dialling into the Honda and learning about its strengths. We’ve gone in a big, wide circle to learn how the bike reacts in a number of different situations. So, while the lap times are nothing to jump up and down about, we’ve done the base work here and we have a good direction to go in the next time we test. It’s also been good to get to know the mechanics, the technicians and the rest of the team this week. We’ve had some good laughs and there’s already a great atmosphere in the box.
Michael van der Mark
Well, when I first got on the bike on Monday it was certainly different, but I’ve really enjoyed this first test! The weather hasn’t been so great but I started on the first two days with no electronics, just to get a feel for the bike and a new level of power. On Wednesday I used a bit more of the electronics and we made some really big changes just to see what each part of the system can do, so that was really useful. I was quite happy with everything this week and also happy with my lap times on old tyres. I also used a qualifying tyre on Wednesday and was able to go around a second faster on that, which is the expectation I think. Now, it’s back to training through December before getting back on the bike in the middle of January, which is going to be a really busy month.
Pieter Breddels
The week has been really good, even though the weather here in Jerez has not. Sylvain was quite fast in the wet on our final day and we were able to test some different engine maps, as well as a different clutch and chassis settings. In the dry weather that we had on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday, we played with the CBR quite a lot and obviously had to work differently to what Sylvain has been used to. However, we made good progress and came back to some settings that have worked before. Michael was not quite so fast in the wet but his performance and work was really good in the dry and we’re very happy with his first outing on the bike. Neither rider has identified any major problems, so we’re looking forward to a lot more positive progress during a really busy testing programme in January.
