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The Fiat
Yamaha Team's new recruit, 20-year-old Spaniard Jorge
Lorenzo, has completed three days of testing in Malaysia
as the team begins working towards next year's MotoGP
season.
Day 1
(Thursday, 15th November)
Heavy rain in Sepang drastically limited track time for
the Fiat Yamaha Team on Thursday, as they began three
days of testing in Malaysia alongside several other
MotoGP teams. With Valentino Rossi still at home
recuperating from a broken hand, it is just Jorge
Lorenzo taking part in the team’s testing programme this
week, the 20-year old Spaniard riding the M1 for the
second time since the end of the season as he prepares
to officially join the team in January.
After rain early in the morning it took some time for
the track to dry out and Lorenzo did not get started
until just after 11am. The MotoGP rookie completed 26
laps as he continued to develop his understanding of his
new bike and tyres and was looking forward to continuing
his work in the afternoon, but another heavy rainstorm
after lunch meant the track did not dry out sufficiently
again and the team abandoned testing for the day.
Lorenzo posted the 9th fastest time of the day with a
lap of 2’04.433, with the unofficial time sheets topped
by Randy de Puniet, in a time of 2’03.033.
Jorge Lorenzo (9th, 2’04.433, 26 Laps): “It’s a
pity about the weather but overall the first day has
been quite positive, even if I haven’t been so fast. We
managed to do 26 laps before lunch and then the rain
came and we weren’t able to do anymore, so hopefully it
will be better tomorrow because we have a lot to do! All
the time I’m feeling more natural on the bike and I can
feel the difference from Valencia, but I need to make a
few changes to my riding style in order to fully adapt
and we’re working on this. It’s hard for me to use all
the power at the moment and I need to learn to be slower
and smoother in the corners and to open the throttle a
bit earlier. I’m struggling a bit to find the fast lap
times but this is normal because there is still so much
about the bike that I don’t understand. Tomorrow we have
some new things to try, including a new fork, and I will
just keep on working steadily.”
Daniele Romagnoli – Team Manager: “Today we
started with Jorge at what is a very different track to
Valencia, so we began with a base set-up from Yamaha
while he got a feel for the bike on this track. He is
starting to learn and understand more all the time about
the MotoGP bike but he needs to improve some things and
one of the things he’s concentrating on is braking
deeper into the corner. He doesn’t have the best feeling
going into the corner at the moment; he’s got some lack
of grip and he’s not 100% comfortable and so we’ve been
trying some different engine braking settings to try to
improve this. We already have some plans about how to
improve the package for him but unfortunately the rain
stopped us today and so tomorrow we will start again and
see where we get to.”
Masahiko Nakajima – Fiat Yamaha Team Director:
“Unfortunately we were only able to test for three hours
today so we couldn’t do very much. There are two main
aims for this test; the first is to help Jorge become
fully accustomed to a four-stroke bike, especially in
relation to the engine braking character, which is very
different to what he’s used to on a two-stroke. The
second thing he has to get used to and understand
quickly is the carbon brakes, which are very different
to the steel discs he has been using in 250. These are
two major factors for the rider to understand and they
also influence the entry into the corner, so he has a
lot to learn in these two areas. Once he has overcome
these factors then we are confident he will quickly be
able to develop in other areas so this is where we’re
focused for these three days.”
Day 2 (Friday,
16th November)
The Fiat Yamaha
Team completed an intense second day of testing in Malaysia
with 2008 rider Jorge Lorenzo on Friday, despite a wet track
first thing delaying the start of action until after midday.
Heavy rain overnight and an overcast sky throughout the
morning meant the Sepang track took a long time to dry out
but, once the sun finally shone through the clouds, the
temperature quickly rose into the low 30s, the asphalt dried
and work got underway.
Lorenzo continued to work on general set-up with his new
team, concentrating specifically on improving his braking
and also completing a few laps on the new 2008 prototype M1.
He improved on his time from yesterday, completing 48 laps
and setting the 10th fastest lap of the day in a time of
2’04.021, with the quickest lap of the day set by John
Hopkins in a time of 2’02.200. Tomorrow will see the team
complete one final day of testing before they head home to
Europe.
Jorge Lorenzo (10th, 2’04.021, 48 Laps): “Today was
hard work and I am honestly quite tired after six hours of
riding in this heat! We worked on a lot of new things with
the setting and I feel like I am making progress in some
areas. I’m still having trouble under braking though and I
don’t feel so comfortable with the front end; we made some
improvements today in this area but I know we have more to
do and I still have a lot to learn and some changes to make
to my riding style. I was able to do a few laps on the new
2008 bike today, which I enjoyed and, even though it was
only a few laps, my feeling about it is quite good. The most
important thing at the moment though is to improve the
feeling with the front end and so we will try again
tomorrow! I hope that we have a completely dry day so we can
use all of the testing time and have a good last day.”
Daniele Romagnoli – Team Manager: “When we finally
got started early this afternoon Jorge was having some
difficulties on the brakes and wasn’t completely comfortable
in the front end. We therefore adjusted some settings and
worked on giving him a better feeling so he was able to do
more laps at a time. He is improving but the major factor we
need to work on still is the braking. Tonight we will check
some data and analyse the situation together with the rider
to work out how to improve things for him tomorrow. We are
making progress but we have a lot of work to do still and we
hope the weather will remain dry so we can take full
advantage of our final day.”
Masahiko Nakajima – Fiat Yamaha Team Director: “Today
Jorge did almost six hours straight and this is a long time
to be concentrating and riding in this heat, so I think he’s
a little bit tired tonight! We had the time to try many
things today and it seems that we’ve found a good direction
in which to work towards the right base setting for him, so
this is something positive. He also completed a few laps on
the new 2008 prototype bike, just to get his initial
feeling, which is quite positive. We’ve continued to work
with him specifically on stability under braking and
acceleration and he’s definitely making progress and
improving in these important areas as he becomes more used
to the bike, but there is still more work to do. The braking
point is something quite progressive so we hope that
tomorrow he can make the next step in this area.”
Day 3 (Saturday,
17th November)
Future Yamaha
rider Jorge Lorenzo rounded off his second test with the
factory with more steady improvement in Malaysia in
Saturday, bettering his lap time from the day before by
almost a second. After intermittent rain for the last two
days, the MotoGP teams were rewarded with a completely dry
day today and Lorenzo made the most of the time available,
completing 83 laps of the 5,548m circuit.
Lorenzo’s best time of 2’02.643, which put him seventh, was
set on qualifying tyres near the end of the day. However he
set his fastest lap on race tyres in the early afternoon,
his time of 2.03.044 showing his improvement over the course
of the test. The quickest lap of the day was set by Nicky
Hayden, also on qualifying tyres, in a time of 2.00.592 The
Fiat Yamaha Team will now pack up and return to Europe for a
week’s rest before the final test of the year at Jerez de la
Frontera in Spain on 27th, 28th and 29th November.
Jorge Lorenzo (7th, 2’02.643, 83 Laps): “Overall I’m
happy with these three days of testing. It’s been hard work
but I have improved each day and especially today, when I
have gone nearly one second faster with race tyres than I
was yesterday. I’ve been concentrating on changing my riding
style; braking later and accelerating sooner and we can see
from the data that I have improved quite a lot, although we
still have more to do. I am okay on the longer, faster
corners but on the slower ones I have more problems. We
haven’t done so much work on the tyres, just trying one
different tyre, the same as we tried in Valencia, and with
this tyre we improved half a second. I didn’t ride the new
bike today but it was good to get the chance to try it
briefly yesterday. We won’t start working on it properly
until January; for now the important thing is for me to
learn as much as possible about riding a MotoGP bike. I’ve
had fun these three days and I’m quite happy with my
progress, and now we will look forward to Jerez.”
Daniele Romagnoli – Team Manager: “The main use of
this test has been to collect information regarding the
needs of Jorge as we try to make him as comfortable as
possible on our bike. We have tried to move his position on
the bike slightly further back and we have made some changes
here, but we are now waiting for some new parts for the
future which we think will improve his position further.
Overall we’ve improved his braking points and his feeling
going into the corners; this is an ongoing process and we
will continue to work on it over the next tests. Thanks to
Jorge and to the team for their hard work and for so many
laps; everything we’ve done here will help us for the
future.”
Masahiko Nakajima – Fiat Yamaha Team Director: “Today
we’ve had a good test and we were helped by the weather
being sunny all day. Jorge managed many laps and we got
through a lot of work. We’ve found a good direction now with
regards to his chassis set-up and this is very encouraging
news for us. Jorge, his crew and all the Yamaha engineers
are all working together and sharing in his development and
learning process, and we are very clear now what we have to
do in preparation for the next test in Jerez. We’ve learnt a
lot here and it’s been a very useful test for us.”
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