Comments after testing 2012 MotoGP bikes

Thursday 18 August: The various teams had testing on Monday and Tuesday at Brno in the Czech Republic for the 2012 1000cc machines.

Yamaha Factory Racing - 2012 1000cc prototype

Jorge Lorenzo: "Today has been an exciting and busy day because it has been the first day riding the 1000cc bike, but also because we have made a small step with the engine upgrades for the 800cc bike. We rode many laps non-stop from nine this morning to five this afternoon! I realized the 1000cc bike was incredible when I saw the power on the straight. I like this bike a lot and I wanted to have more laps but I have to still think about this season! I have been just one hour with our future bike! I can say that the next MotoGP season will be amazing, much more power, you go out of the corners sliding; I can’t wait!"

Ben Spies: "The 800cc upgrades we tested this morning were positive, hopefully there’s more in that direction in the future as well. With the 1000cc bike it was a pretty successful first day. We didn’t change much on it, pretty much just rolled out and did some laps to get as much data as possible. We made some small changes to see how differently it affected the bike compared to the 800.There’s more improvements to be made for sure but for the first day to go faster than the 800 was a surprise. My arm is feeling better and better, I’m getting a check up when I fly home to the US on Wednesday but should be fit and ready for Indianapolis.”

Repsol Honda Team - 2012 RC213V prototype

Dani Pedrosa: "First of all, I'm very happy to have tested the 1000cc because rain was expected but it didn't arrive until the end of the day, so we were lucky with that. My first impression in the morning was that the feelings were quite similar to those I had when I first came into MotoGP, you can feel the difference in torque and power. Perhaps I was still riding it with a 800cc style and I need a little more understanding again and try to ride it differently, but the bike seems to work quite well. We will make many modifications, so the final version will be very different to today's bike, but this is normal and the first impression is quite good. Compared to the 990cc I rode in 2006 it's very similar on the power side, but a little lighter in weight and behaviour. I tried one run with the prototype Casey tested in Jerez and also the other one with some modifications and it was a bit better. With a new bike, electronics, engine, chassis, everything is not the best, but from my experience in the past with new bikes, the starting point is not so bad. We have to be very careful with the chassis because perhaps the tyres next year are a little different in construction which will affect the chassis".

Casey Stoner: "Today was another good shakedown but we still have some work to do, we found a few positive things and confirmed certain directions to take and move forward. We had a few small problems with chatter but it's something that shouldn't be too difficult to sort out through engine braking and engine management systems, which are areas we can definitely improve in, along with the chassis. The engine for me is fantastic, to ride the 1000 with more grunt and more power it's a lot of fun, it has incredible acceleration, most of the time too much! We tested a couple of the new tyres and had some issues, the traction didn't feel that great and they seemed to create a lot more chatter so we went back to the standard tyres and the chatter seemingly disappeared. From the data we have from the first test and this test, we can go away and come back with the next step and take it from there".

Ducati - Ducati GP11.1.

The Ducati Team of Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden also remained in the Czech Republic to do some testing aboard the GP11 and GP11.1 prototypes. Rossi and Hayden were both happy with the test results, as the Italian and American placed most emphasis on the GP.11, which incorporates the chassis being developed for 2012 by Ducati's engineers.

Following is an MotoGP interview with Filippo Preziosi, General Director at Ducati, as he discusses the progress of the GP11.1.

Filippo Preziosi: "The changes we made during the weekend at Brno were finalised to make a faster bike for the race, and now we are working for the mid and long term in order to define the target for the designers for the new generation of bikes. For that we need huge modifications in the set up to evaluate bike behaviour when you do these things.

"I'm happy that Nicky is confirming Valentino's ideas. We know that introducing a new bike during the Championship usually produces a worse performance in the short term for a couple of races, and you must accept that because it is normal. But if you have a small advantage you can gain from it and stay with it, and it is especially important for the development of next year's bike.

"For me aluminium is not the key point - what is necessary is to find some stiffness. We are working a lot and in the future we will test new solutions because we want to improve the performance and our knowledge, so as usual we will run new solutions back to back with the standard one and we will decide which one the rider prefers.

"I think we took a small step in the right direction in giving Valentino more feeling and more feedback. We know Valentino is a winning rider so it is up to us to put him in the condition to be able to realise his potential."