Sunday, February 15, 2009
PaddockSpy Headline
Friday, 13 February 2009
Spaniard dedicating year to preparing for new Grand Prix class
Former 250cc World Championship runner-up Fonsi Nieto has given further weight to the future Moto2 category, with the announcement that he is dedicating his immediate future to preparing a title challenge in the class. The Spaniard has signed with the L’Oreal LaGlisse team to test their 600cc bike, and possibly ride it in the 2009 CEV Spanish Championship.
Testing with a machine produced in Eskil Sutter’s Swiss workshop, Nieto is likely to have his first on-track encounter with the four-stroke at the Jarama circuit in Madrid. The intention will be to verify the functionality of the bike. A public test in Valencia will follow.
L’Oreal LaGlisse Principal Jaime Fernandez-Aviles expressed his delight with the addition of Nieto to his team to MotoGP.com, stating that “Fonsi is a very strong rider and will be fundamental to the development of our bike, and we aren’t ruling out the idea of running him in the entire CEV season this year.”
Nieto has been racing in superbike competition since 2005, in addition to a ride with Kawasaki in the 2007 French Grand Prix as a stand-in for Olivier Jacque. His intention will now be to become the first ever Moto2 World Champion when the new class is introduced.
source: www.motogp.com
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Saturday, February 14, 2009
A1 Team Great Britain has recalled Danny Watts for next weekend’s races in at the new-to-A1GP circuit in Gauteng, South Africa.
Watts made himself unavailable for selection at the last round in Taupo, due to his partner giving birth to their baby son. Former Champ Car driver Dan Clarke stood in for Watts.
However, the 29-year-old, who scored two podiums on the last new-to-A1GP track in Chengdu, will return to race for the team.
“I am delighted to welcome back Danny and I am very much looking forward to the new challenges that A1GP Gauteng will present,” said team principal Katie Clements.
“The team has always had the ability to adapt to a new circuit quickly, and I know the same is true of Danny. We know the team and Danny collectively have the talent and pace to be running up the front. While it is true that we are not where we wanted to be at this stage of the season, there are a lot of points available over the weekend and as always we will be putting in 110 per cent effort to score as high as possible to be in the fight at the front of the championship.”
The team rests in 10th place in the championship, with just the 16 points that Watts scored in Chengdu on the board. “We’re sort of struggling in the points department at the moment so next weekend we’ve got to go out and get a really good result,” said Watts. “A couple of podiums would be good. We’ll all be putting in our best efforts as normal.”
source: www.a1gp.com
source: www.a1gp.com
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Friday, 06 February 2009
Focusing on the electronics of his new M1 and enjoying some friendly competitiveness with his old friend Loris Capirossi in testing at Sepang, Valentino Rossi was in a typically good mood at the end of Friday’s session.
Despite the nagging pain caused by the stitches in his left hand and foot – a result of his domestic mishap earlier this week in Italy – Valentino Rossi enjoyed Friday’s testing session in Malaysia, finishing third on the timesheet just behind Casey Stoner and Loris Capirossi.
Working hard on the continual adaptation of his 2009 prototype M1 the MotoGP World Champion tested a new electronic setting to assist with acceleration and was able to produce a best time of 2’01.626, inside the existing lap record and just 0.143s off pace-setter Stoner’s Friday best.
At the end of his 40-lap workout Rossi explained, “Today we tested some new electronic solutions in order to allow me to open the throttle earlier and they were not bad at all, but we still need to work to improve it even more. This afternoon the stitches hurt me a bit, but my pace was still very good so I am happy.”
Having raced around the 5.542km Sepang circuit with his compatriot and friend Capirossi late in the session, the Fiat Yamaha star joked, “At the end of the day I had some fun with Loris; we did a couple of laps together and I think that he enjoyed it a lot, because he beat me! I had fun, a lot of fun; it was like the good old times!”
Further detailing the thinking behind his work schedule the 29 year-old added, “I did not do the long run; I will do it tomorrow if my physical condition allows it. I may have to do it in two parts, so that it won’t put too much stress on my stitches. It will be interesting to do the long run with the new tyres, but I am not expecting it to be so much slower than last year.”
Click here for the MotoGP Sepang Test Results so far.
source: www.motogp.com
Friday, February 06, 2009
“It can’t be far away now. It’s got to happen sooner or later.”
Those are the words of A1 Team Australia’s John Martin, talking about his chances of finally scoring a medal.
Since being promoted from impressive rookie to full-time race driver at Taupo last season, Martin has steadily grown in confidence and stature as he attempts to turn Jackaroo back into a regular podium finisher.
Australia still holds the record for the team with most medal finishers by different drivers – five in all – yet 24-year-old Martin has yet to wear any A1GP metal round his neck, despite being the team’s most capped driver.
But the numbers indicate, he’s close. And getting ever closer. A quick browse through A1GP.com’s Stats Zone shows Martin’s improving performances, particularly in the new A1GP Powered by Ferrari car, a vehicle that appears to suit him better than the last machine.
He has finished in the top six positions four times this season, giving Australia 30 points, which puts it in eighth place in the current rankings. It is just that while he has driven every Feature race this season well enough to trouble the points scorers, it hasn’t been enough to trouble the engravers.
Only one driver in the history of A1GP has as many fourth place finishes without going onto scoring a medal place – Switzerland’s Sebastien Buemi (now in Formula 1).
But Taupo may prove to have been the breakthrough race for Martin. Visiting the first track he has raced previously in A1GP, he scored his best two qualifying performances – lining up seventh and fourth for the Sprint and Feature races respectively.
“It’s good to finally be inside the top five in qualifying,” Martin told A1GP.com. “So hopefully from now we can keep going and prove we’re sort of around third or fourth fastest [all the time.]
“If we can keep doing that, then we can hang with guys at the front. Life is a lot easier at the front, let me tell you. We ran well in Malaysia and then in Taupo, so that medal can’t be far away now. It’s got to happen sooner or later. We’ll go to South Africa and see what happens.”
Martin believes that qualifying well is the key that could unlock an elusive medal place, and better yet, Australia’s first gold.
“We had pace in qualifying in Malaysia too, and we should have third of fourth on the grid but unfortunately we got held up by Monaco at the crucial point. In Taupo, we were able to get some clear runs.
“We could have been third in the Sprint race in Taupo, looking at how close we were in the pit stops and seeing how everyone else struggled, but I had a bit of an issue in my pit stop.
“I then got frustrated and tried to make up time and clipped the tyres and that was my race over.
“But I didn’t make any mistakes in the Feature. I could have been close to Portugal after the seconds round of stops but when I came back out on track I got stuck behind South Africa for four laps and that was it.
“We’re close, you know.”
By the time A1GP makes its debut on the Gold Coast of Australia in October, who would bet against the home team having scored a medal of the same colour?source: www.a1gp.com
Thursday, February 5, 2009
| After watching his BMW Sauber team mate, Robert Kubica, score a first win at last year’s Canadian Grand Prix, you would be forgiven for thinking Nick Heidfeld’s goal for 2009 would be to match his Polish counterpart. But Heidfeld has a far more ambitious target and is hoping to challenge for the title, if the F1.09 proves to be a worthy enough charge. |      |
Source: www.formula1.com
Saturday, January 31, 2009
A1 Team Lebanon’s Daniel Morad has grudgingly put his visit to New Zealand down to experience, as the impressive speed that he displayed in practice at Taupo Motorsport Park failed to result in a single point.
“I think I just need some luck,” the 18-year-old told A1GP.com. “We started so well on Friday and found a really good race set-up on Saturday.
“But then it started going wrong in qualifying and I was caught out in all four sessions, either by getting caught behind slower traffic or caught out by a spinning car. Monaco’s Clivio Piccione blocked me at Turn 4 in Sprint race qualifying then, when Congfu Cheng of China spun in front of me at Turn 11 in Q4, I reckon that cost me 0.8 seconds and without that I could have qualified third and that would have led to a very different race for me.”
Then came the races, with Morad starting 10th for the Sprint race.
“I was looking to keep it clean in the Sprint and go for points, because I knew that I had the pace,” he explained, “but the steering wheel started to be mis-aligned to the right and slid round more and more. By the time I came in for my first pit stop, it was angled at 45 degrees when it should have been central.
“Then, after the stop, within half a lap, it was right round at 90 degrees and I pulled out with a rear suspension arm having pulled right out of the differential casing.”
Starting ninth for the Feature race, Daniel was again confident of points. In fact, he was confident of securing far more than that.
“I truly believed that I might even be able to go for a medal,” said Morad. “For once, we’d had a chance to practice our pit stops and I was optimistic. Then, off the line, the anti-stall cut in. I did everything I’d done before, but the engine kept cutting out.
“Once I got going, I passed Italy through Turn 6, then at Turn 7 New Zealand ran wide. But then he started coming across on me as I went to the inside and kept coming, taking off my nose. So that was the end of my weekend and I will have to put this behind me and start again in South Africa in four weeks time.”
source: www.a1gp.com
The Blusens BQR team provided a vision of the future in the Spanish capital this week, when they unveiled a prototype Moto2 machine which will run in the World Championship as of 2011.
With the 250cc class set to be replaced by the new Moto2 category in the World Championship as of 2011, Blusens BQR demonstrated that they are ahead of the game on Tuesday in Madrid as they unveiled the Honda-BQR Moto2 machine they intend to use in Grand Prix racing in two years’ time.
A crowd of eager media representatives attended the special event at the Hotel Puerta America as Blusens BQR presented the four-stroke 600cc Honda-BQR machine, meeting the specifications of the Moto2 class - which will replace the racing currently undertaken in the intermediary category on two-stroke 250cc bikes.
The bike is scheduled to be used this year in the Spanish National Championship (CEV).
During Tuesday’s presentation, hosted by Spanish MotoGP commentator Ernest Riveras (TVE), the likes of Raul Romero (Blusens BQR team owner), Carmelo Ezpeleta (Dorna CEO), Joan Moreta (President of the Royal Spanish Motorcycle Federation and FIM Vice President) and Jose Ramon Garcia (President of Blusens) all spoke to the media, alongside Daniel Rivas, who will ride the Honda-BQR Moto2 in the CEV.
source: www.motogp.com
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