[kropotkin thinks...] - Guy Coulon Interview No 2: Edwards' Crew Chief Talks Moto2, T

[Ninjette Newsbot]

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MotoGPMatters.com's Scott Jones had spoken to Guy Coulon at the MotoGP season opener at Qatar, and the conversation had left us with some questions unanswered. Colin Edwards' crew chief had told us that he wanted to reserve judgment on issues such as tires and the practice restrictions until a few races into the season. At the halfway mark of the season, we felt it was a good time to catch up with Coulon again and get his opinion, as well as ask about the Tech 3 team's plans for the fledgling Moto2 series due to launch next year. Scott Jones spoke to Guy Coulon

MGPM: When we spoke in Qatar, you said we would need to go to several races where there had been no winter testing to know how the shortened practice schedule and new tire rules would affect race preparation. What can you tell us seven races into the season?

Coulon: But already we have another change [in the practice schedule] from Le Mans. We started the beginning of the season with only three sessions of 45 minutes each. From Le Mans, we still have three sessions but each is one hour now. So the main thing we have learned this year is that the Yamaha is not difficult to set up, and I think we have an advantage with fewer [practice] sessions.

But of course we have to use the time we have differently from before when we had more practice sessions. Before we had four hours and now we have three, so we must be very focused on what changes we want to make. We must decide after each change if we will keep those settings or not. When we had more time we could compare settings, and if the rider was unsure which was better, we could compare the two settings again before moving forward. But now when we compare different settings, we must decide right away if we keep those settings or not; we follow this way or we follow that way. So that is different from before. But also this year we have only one tire manufacturer, and that means we have many fewer types of tires to combine with our tests of different chassis settings.

Mainly I think it’s a positive thing to have only three one-hour sessions, partly because on Friday morning the public and the riders can now see each other [during the pit lane access period]. Also, as you know the economic situation is quite severe, so we can save money from the reduced engine mileage every race weekend. For the engine makers this is a significant savings.

MGPM: Is the latest scheme of three one-hour sessions a good balance between cost savings and race preparation, or should it be changed again?

Coulon: I think it’s a good balance, because finally everyone is ready in time for the race. Maybe everyone is one tenth slower—if we had another hour to test, maybe we could go one tenth or two tenths faster. But in fact the show and the fighting for positions during the race is very similar to before, and the three hours of practice are the same for everyone. And at the same time we save a lot of money, that’s clear. Not just on mileage, but also when we are in Europe at races that are not too far from team headquarters, most team members can arrive one day later, so we have one night less at hotels. So this helps financially. We used to test for one or two days after the races, which meant that the entire team should stay at the hotel for one or two more nights. There is no more of that, so this is another good point for saving money, and in fact we have very similar [race] performance.

MGPM: You mentioned tires earlier. How is it working with the Bridgestones after seven races?

Coulon: So at the first race we said the big question was what would happen on tracks were there had been no winter testing with the new tires. We’d tested in Qatar, Malaysia, Jerez, so we already new before the race weekend which tire to use there. But when we started racing at tracks where we hadn’t tested, we found the Bridgestone allocation was good. We had no problem with the tires and everybody got normal life out of the race tires; I believe nobody is complaining about that.

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