Preziosi interview

[rcrob]

in this weeks gp week pg 18:
GP Week

Some things of interest:

On the most restrictive rule, he thinks that the fuel limit is the most restrictive, but he likes the rule stating "I think they are clever rules, because they push the race engineers to develop technologies that are useful for production"

On the carbon frame: He thinks stiffness is easier to control on the carbon frame versus aluminum. He also thinks that the only problem is finding the correct frame stiffness. He also touches on the direction that development that Casey Stoner had taken them with the frame was a different direction than Rossi.

[Matt_P]

Stiffness might be easier to control with carbon, but could the basic properties inherent in aluminum provide better feel?

I wonder if they ever tried out an aluminum subframe.

[rcrob]

Originally Posted by Matt_P

Stiffness might be easier to control with carbon, but could the basic properties inherent in aluminum provide better feel?

I wonder if they ever tried out an aluminum subframe.

Feel is a function of resonant frequencies which has to do with stiffness. Nothing magical about aluminum it is just like Preziosi said (and I might have mentioned it too ) the Japanese have a 30 year jump on the Carbon guys to narrow down what range of stiffness is best.

[Matt_P]

^I was thinking more along the lines of something like nylon vs steel guitar strings. Same note, different feel and "color".

If it's as simple as resonant frequencies then I guess they ought to start baking a bunch of different subframes until they get something right.

Still, no matter how good they get the front subframe I think they might still have a problem with weight distribution. I wonder if they'll ever narrow the engine and get it more forward.

[rcrob]

Originally Posted by Matt_P

^I was thinking more along the lines of something like nylon vs steel guitar strings. Same note, different feel and "color".

If it's as simple as resonant frequencies then I guess they ought to start baking a bunch of different subframes until they get something right.

Still, no matter how good they get the front subframe I think they might still have a problem with weight distribution. I wonder if they'll ever narrow the engine and get it more forward.

It is a "sum of the parts" thing. Once they get the whole package working well together they will have a good bike, but it will take time. It probably won't happen this year, might not happen next year, but it will if they keep trying. One thing that they have going for them is that they have a lot more resources available to them this year than they have in the past which is glaringly obvious. Look at Yamaha and the difference that the loss of Rossi made. I know people will argue that it is a development thing because of the loss of Rossi, JB and the crew, but Yamaha lost a lot of money when Rossi left in terms of Sponsorship dollars and they don't have anywhere near the resources that they had when he was there. Now they are suffering with a much slower bike (engine wise) which was a problem last year but more so this year now that the Honda is so damn good all around.

[Matt_P]

From reading that article I'm also really interested to see what displacement Ducati will run next year.

It'll be interesting to see what all of the factories have done in that regard.

It'll also be interesting to compare the power characteristics and fuel consumption of the smaller higher revving engines vs the larger lower revving engines. I wonder if anyone other than the CRT teams will go for the full-on 1000cc.

Lastly, keeping in mind that the CRT teams will get 3 more liters of fuel, I wouldn't be surprised to see a bike with a highly modded RSV4 engine hanging with the factory bikes on the straights. I know the Ducati GP test team couldn't shake Biaggi on his RSV4 superbike at Monza recently. Sure the Ape has 200cc on the GP11, but it's also significantly heavier.

[rcrob]

Originally Posted by Matt_P

From reading that article I'm also really interested to see what displacement Ducati will run next year.

It'll be interesting to see what all of the factories have done in that regard.

It'll also be interesting to compare the power characteristics and fuel consumption of the smaller higher revving engines vs the larger lower revving engines. I wonder if anyone other than the CRT teams will go for the full-on 1000cc.

Lastly, keeping in mind that the CRT teams will get 3 more liters of fuel, I wouldn't be surprised to see a bike with a highly modded RSV4 engine hanging with the factory bikes on the straights. I know the Ducati GP test team couldn't shake Biaggi on his RSV4 superbike at Monza recently. Sure the Ape has 200cc on the GP11, but it's also significantly heavier.

I think everyone will show up with 1000cc. We've seen past experiment (i.e. the Aprilia 400) where the manufacturer opted for a less than class displacement only to see them get soundly beat. Fuel of course is the limitation but right now the electronics are handling that pretty well. If Honda shows up with a 1000cc engine that can run race distance on 21 liters everyone else had better show up with the same or else they have already lost.