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The triple-crown winning Fiat Yamaha Team of last year
returns to action this weekend for the opening round of
the 2009 MotoGP World Championship in Qatar. For the
second year in succession the first race will be run
under floodlights at the Losail International Circuit in
Doha and reigning World Champion Valentino Rossi and
last year’s Rookie of the Year Jorge Lorenzo will be
lining up alongside 16 other riders all out to claim
motorcycling’s biggest prize.
2008 saw Valentino Rossi return to the top after two
difficult years, winning nine races, taking his eighth
World Championship and ensuring that Fiat Yamaha took
the Teams’ title and Yamaha the Manufacturers’. He
starts the season on 97 career wins – the second highest
total in Grand Prix history – and although the all-time
record of 122 wins, held by Giacomo Agostini, still
stands some way off, with Rossi already signed with
Yamaha for next year it is not too distant a target. The
irrepressible Italian turned 30 in February and has put
in a strong showing during testing, finishing second in
the Jerez ‘qualifying’ shoot-out. He has two previous
wins at the Losail desert track but last year saw him
finish fifth, his second worst result of the season, in
his first race with Bridgestone tyres. With a successful
season on the Japanese rubber already behind him however
there is nothing to hold him back this time and he will
be out for victory this weekend.
Jorge Lorenzo blasted onto the scene in Qatar last year
with a blistering pole position and a mature ride to
second, belying his years and the fact that it was his
first race in MotoGP. He went on to set successive poles
at the next two races before riding to victory at just
his third premier class race in Portugal. The middle
part of the season saw him run into some difficulties
with a couple of spectacular crashes and a series of
injuries but he recovered well in the latter stages and
took a total of six podiums in the season, enough to
secure him the leading rookie title. With a year of
experience now under his belt and having shown good form
during preseason, including running second fastest at
the Qatar test last month, the 21-year-old is
undoubtedly a contender for race wins this year.
2009 sees several rule changes brought in, the most
major of which is a single-tyre rule with all riders now
on Bridgestone tyres. Each rider will have a maximum of
twelve rear and eight front tyres per weekend, excluding
rain tyres, with just two different compounds available
to them at each race. In an effort to reduce engine
mileage and therefore costs Friday morning practice has
been cancelled and all other practice sessions have been
reduced to 45 minutes. Post-race tests have also been
outlawed, meaning that last week’s test in Jerez was the
last chance the teams will have to test this year’s
bikes outside of a race weekend this season.
The floodlit Qatar circuit features 3,600 light fixtures
using 250, 1500 and 2500-watt bulbs and the system needs
13 megawatt generators to produce the required 5.4
million watts of power – creating enough light to cover
an area equivalent to 70 football pitches. The bulbs are
fixed on 1000 poles with mounting heights from 3 to 36
metres, all linked together by almost 500 kilometres of
wire and supported by 300,000 kilos of concrete.
Valentino Rossi
“Qatar isn’t one of our strongest tracks but we still have a
few cards to play and I hope that a little more work will
see us improve for the first race. Tests really mean nothing
once you get to raving, the situation is totally different
and really we have little idea what will happen until we get
there, it’s very exciting! I’m feeling confident, we’re in
good shape even if we’re going to what was our worst track
during testing, but I am happy about the performance of my
M1 in general; Yamaha have done a great job and so this
makes me happy. With the new single tyre rule the tactics
will become clearer race by race. I think a lot of new
factors will come into play and strategy is going to be
quite important to determine where you start the race. I
think luck will also be a factor in qualifying, more so than
previously! In fact, I am quite curious to see what will
happen in a 45 minute race with so few tyres, it’s going to
be interesting. I’ve used the last week to relax, recharge
and train. It’s going to be a very long season and we need
to be consistently at 100%. We will take it race by race and
keep focused on the target, which is of course winning the
championship once again.”
Jorge Lorenzo
“I am feeling good and I’m eager to start the championship.
Preseason has been hard work, but finally I understood how
to be fast with the new Bridgestone tyres and the last day
in Qatar and the test in Jerez have left me feeling
confident and hopeful for a good start to the season. The
tyres are very different and I have had to adapt my riding
style, but step-by-step we have become accustomed to them.
For qualifying it’s a bit of a pity because I was a rider
that was always strong on qualifying tyres, but it’s the
same for everyone so we will get used to it. I feel much
more experienced than this time last year and much stronger
as well, even if I was on pole for this race last year! My
target for the season is to improve on my fourth position of
last year; I want to make sure I improve year by year. The
championship is too big to think about yet, for now I am
just concentrating on Qatar. I also have a new number, 99,
which I think looks good on my M1 and I hope that it will
bring me luck!”
Davide Brivio
“As a team we’re very excited to be finally going racing.
Valentino has been strong during testing and we’re not
worried about Qatar, we still have some things to try and
we’re confident we will be fast enough to challenge there.
The new tyre rule is quite exciting, it adds something new
to the first race, but we’re very confident because we’ve
had a year on the Bridgestones and it’s also clear that
they’ve done a good job with the new tyres. It will be
strange not having Friday practice, and we will have to make
sure we’re very focused and concentrated throughout to use
the time in the best way. Luckily we have the most
experienced team in the paddock! For the season in general,
the key to winning the championship will be consistency. Our
aim is to start on the right note in Qatar.”
Daniele Romagnoli
“Finally we’re approaching the first race and in quite good
shape after our reduced winter test time. The main aim of
winter testing was to find a good base for the new Yamaha M1
for Jorge and we have managed to do this, so we’re confident
that we can achieve a good result in Qatar, especially after
the last setting changes we made in Jerez. We need to keep
working however because it’s clear that our rivals are very
strong this year. Qatar is a friendly track for us after
Jorge’s great debut there last year both in qualifying and
in the race. I think if we could repeat that then it would
be perfect! It’s the first time we’re racing with the new
tyre rule and we’re definitely going to need to optimise
tyre use especially for qualifying, but it’s not a big
problem because as I said we already have a good base. The
team is excited to be starting again and now we’re just
waiting for Friday afternoon to get to work!”
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