On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 00:01:09 +0100, MKS - 74 <priller@tiscali.dk>
wrote:
>Så er det officielt at Barros overtager Rossi's sæde i Repsolteamet.
Selvom Fiorani dog ifølge MotoGP hævder at aftalen endnu ikke er helt
på plads
Her er uddrag af et interview Barros gav til det brasilianske blad
Revista da Moto !
Q: HRC pilot. You didn’t see it coming, right?
Barros: It all went too fast. When Valentino’s manager didn’t show up
at the Malaysia GP, when he was due to sign Vale’s contract, the
people at HRC went to talk to me, to know if I could ride for them. I
said I’d love to, only that I had a contract for 2004 with Altadis, e
that the breaking fee was too heavy. Even though I said I would try to
get free, and that’s what happened.
Q: Did Altadis release you free?
Barros: Last season, the teams let the riders test their new bikes,
but not this year. Honda did not release Rossi, and Yamaha decided to
do the same. But I made myself clear to them: I am not willing to ride
for them, that I’d rather ride for HRC.
Q: And what was the answer:
Barros: There was no answer. I must admit that since the beginning of
the season, they saw my difficulties, that I was injured since the
first GP, e they kindly told me that if I wanted to, I could stay
away, to seek proper treatment. But to interrupt mid season wouldn’t
be fine by me, it not in accordance with my character. And then I kept
insisting, and seeing that the M1 problems weren’t going away, and
that I was getting worse every GP. When Yamaha went for Valentino, and
Honda asked me to ride for them, I couldn’t resist. But I didn’t want
to be unfair. I told them I was not young anymore, am already 33 years
old, and that there’s not much time left for me in Moto GP. Yamaha’s
M1 project needs to be restart from scraps, with luck, they can fight
for the title by 2005. But with my contract ending by 2004, what would
happen to me if I did one more season just like 2003? Or just a little
bit better? I would risk being fired. With HRC I would have another
shot for the title, the complete opposite figure.
Q: And then…
Barros: Again, they listened carefully, they didn’t say no, nor yes to
my ultimatum. Then I signed Honda anyway, I risked it all just not to
loose the biggest chance of my life.
Q: But who’s gonna pay the costs?
Barros: Nobody. I don’t want to discuss all details, but Altadis can’t
do nothing due to some facts that happened at Valencia GP, which would
allow me to file a rescission of my contract, but now with them paying
me the same amount.
Q: How’s that?
Barros: They violated some of my contract terms. Now it’s seems best
for both parties not to file suit.
Q: So you are on Rossi’s spot at HRC?
Barros: Exactly. And I could also choose my team, since Valentino took
with him many of the staff. My chief mechanic will be Ramon Forcada,
who used to work with me at Pons, e with him will come some other guys
who helped me in the Pons years.
Q: Will you be the no. 1 rider?
Barros: That is not on the contract. Honda’s contract is the same for
all riders. Me, Biaggi, Gibernau, will all have the same gear. Honda
made clear that the important thing is for a Honda bike to win. Repsol
(HRC), Telefonica (Gresini) and Camel (Pons) are the ones who will try
to make a difference here. But I must add that, all thing being equal,
it is better for HRC to win. Never in Honda’s history, a non factory
rider went on to be the champion. If by the end of the year the
chances for the title went for me and Biaggi only, I believe Honda may
probably give me enough parts to make a difference. It has always been
that way with them. Now, in HRC, is between me and Hayden, there will
be no difference between bikes, back as when it was with Doohan and
Crivillé. I more experienced than Hayden, who is very fast, but he is
in his only second year.
Q: When will you begin practicing?
Barros: Tachikawa, HRC manager, keep me informed of the last practices
results by e-mail, and told me that there were no new parts tested. I
spend January getting fit to debut at February 11 in Sepang. He told
me that the four practices before the season starts are more than
enough to me.
Q: Do you have a good relationship with these guys at HRC?
Barros. Definetely. I know them very well, and work with many of them
in the many times I run Suzuka 8 H. It will be good to have people
like Tadayuki Okada, former rider in 500cc, who is training to assume
the Sporting Director role within the team. He’s a great guy, and
together we won Suzuka 8H and have an excellent understanding.
Q: Let’s talk about 2003…you fell 21 times. What’s in Yamaha that make
you fell that much?
Barros: Indeed. I’ve never fell that much in my life, not even when I
started Gps. M1 is a very hard bike to ride. And the reason lies more
on the chassis than on the power delivery. The Honda I rode, besides
being more linear in its power delivery, has a chassis that allows you
to do everything you want. I tested an M3 prototype, a Yamaha that
nobody outside the team saw, e it had indeed a fine tuned back end,
witch would slide the way I wanted, but that had a crap front end. I
told them: “That’s it! That’s what I’m talking about, now do the same
with the front end!”. That was before season starts, Yamaha spent all
year trying to solve it, but to no avail.
Q: But when you started at Yamaha, you said that they missed Honda by
only a tiny amount
Barros: It did, but it went on. While Yamaha made some progress, Honda
made much more. With Honda you do whatever you want, you can slide
controllably. You put the bike on it’s side and it is like: “Ih, went
too much, let me back a little here, yes, that’s it, a litlle more,
let me see…right!”. I’m not kidding, it’s just like that, you can
actually think about what to do, so obedient is the machine. The bike
warns you, tells you that the front tire is sliding, how fast will the
back gone…And so one creates a fast lap.
Not so with the Yamaha. M1’s front end goes, and goes, goes…suddenly
BAM!, you’re off the bike. Of all my crashes, only one was due to the
back, the last one, in Australia. All the others were caused by the
front end [recalls me Biaggi in 2002, perhaps all his falls werent’t
due to his style only, N.T.]
Q: How did the crash at the warm-up for the first GP influenced your
season?
Barros: I was very sad with that crash. 3h before my first start, I
was seriously hurt in my knee, which cause me trouble for the whole
season. That GP I run against medical advice, but I finally manage
moths later to manage the pain […] But when I almost done, there comes
Kagayama and run into me from behind, out of nowhere, broking my hand,
and breaking a tendon in my shoulder. At the time, I thought only my
hand were the problem, but the worse was to come. Only at the German
GP did I realize that my shoulder was to be my main concern, that my
hand and keen were the least of my problems. I couldn’t break anymore,
I had scrutiating pain turning right…I never thought my shoulder were
that important to racing. From them on, I never raced without pain
reliver injections.
Q: Why didn’t you stop then?
Barros: I didn’t want to. Not a single moment did Yamaha pressed me,
nor did Altadis. They gave me total freedom to decide. By I wanted to
finish the season, like all the others before. […] I had to prove to
myself that I was able to overcome the pain, the difficult bike, and
to honor my commitments. And in doing that I discovered an inner
strength that I myself never experienced before. Only I can tell what
I really felt riding that way. My last GP was the worst. When it
finally ended, down in the pit lane, I stand for 15 minutes on the
bike, unable to step down. I had a fall on Saturday practice, and
besides the knee, the hand, and the shoulder, I had broken some ribs.
I could barely breath. Finally the medical team arrived and calmly
unzipped my leathers, and the helmet. It was surely an unforgettable
day. After all that I took a shower and lay on the bed totally still,
for hours.
Q: All that for a bad chassi…
Barros: They worked very hard, but from beginning to end, the M1
improved at most 5 %. The power improved after Portugal, and that is
that.
Q: Power is than not a problem anymore?
Barros: It’s the chassis. One cannot use the available power. That
bike will continue hurting riders. I fell a lot, Melandri and Nakano
did too, and we all had serious injuries. Checa fell less maybe
because he knows M1 the better, Jacques “tirou a mão” [roll off the
throttle, N.T.]. Outside me and Melandri, the other riders knew M1
idiossincrasies, and that hurt them psicologically.
Q: Will Valentino solve Yamaha’s problems?
Barros: It is not natural for Yamaha to stay where it is. It will
fight for wins. But I believe only in 2004 will it fight for the
title.
Q: So who are the candidates for the title?
Barros: Nicky Hayden will have a brilliant year, Capirossi, the best
team mate I ever had, is the most dangerous guy, since Ducati made an
excellent bike, Gibernau and Biaggi are in excellent teams and will
always fight for the top spot.
Q: What about the rest?
Barros: Edwards is a f* rider, but it is only his first year in a
Honda. Bayliss is fast, but he is too aggressive, some things he does
are simply crazy. Tamada is great, Bridgestone seems good enough, but
they’re won’t be always be competitive in cold wheather.
Q: What about you?
Barros: I will be at the party! I’m riding for 24 years, am 33, cannot
afford to loose time. It’s now or never.
Q: Tell us more about the differences between the M1 and the RCV.
Barros: Honda didn’t need almost no setup. So much so, that you cannot
alter the geometry, there’s no adjustment in the steering head, nor in
the axis of the swing arm. To set up a Honda is a matter of details,
very little ones. In the Yamaha, you can tweak almost everything, and
in each race you can revolutionize the bike. That may appear like a
good thing, but it is actually horrible, each race you what you are
actually doing is to build a new bike, but the thing is, you have only
4h in the practice time, to achieve that. One cannot to that. Once
stuck with a bike, remains little time – and confidence – to find the
right tires, and suspensions settings. One other thing that hurt the
bike, is that it is hard on the tires, you cannot use the wide range
options that Honda can, from the softest to the hardest.
Q: That sounds bad…
Barros: It was difficult, but I learned a lot. God knows what he is
doing, and despite all my experience, maybe I needed it all.
Q: Didn’t the difficulties you had with the setup due to you working
with a different team of technicias?
Barros: I don’t believe so, they were excellent. I think me and Gilles
Bigot got along very well, for instance, he is my track engineer. All
the people at Gauloiser are great. The only problem with the M1
project is the bike itself.
Q: Do you think that with the 4 stroke the dangers for the riders
increased?
Barros: I don’t think that the problems lies with the bike, but with
some tracks. The 4 strokes are faster, and worse still, now we all
have critical problems with stability when breaking, witch is one
thing I never experienced with the 2 strokes 500cc. Take the spot
where Daijiro Kato crashed at Suzuka. That spot had never been
considered a dangerous place, until he crashed. [He seems to imply
that Kato’s crash begin with instability when breaking]. Anyway,
Suzuka is a place where anywhere you crash, you hit the guard-rails.
I’m glad that track is out of the next season. The Qatar track, which
is being build, seems to follow all the good inputs from the pilots.
Q: So, What could we expect from Barros for 2004?
Barros: I give my best, and never look back on my goal, to be the
world champion.
--
-Michael
Aprilia RS250-dele plus div. andre dele til salg på:
http://62.79.120.117/