Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner reckons further improvement in Honda RC213V – MotoGP news
Repsol Honda rider Casey Stoner feels that the new 1000cc Honda RC213V is capable to improve more.
The Australian rider and his teammate Dani Pedrosa topped the time charts for the two-day post-race test session at Valencia.
Pedrosa dominated the time sheet with first position and Stoner trailed him with less than a half a second of time gap. Both riders remarked the dominancy of Honda 1000cc machines just they did in the final 800cc season.
Stoner talked to Motorcyclenews.com and said, “I’d like to see a few more things improve with the bike for the next test in Sepang but I think everybody else is going to be in the same boat. Now we need to understand better the 2012 tyres because the feeling
is quite a lot different with them.”
After winning the 2011 MotoGP World Championship, Stoner claimed his second championship title, last in 2007. Stoner won the season finale event in stunning manner with fraction of a second ahead of the Ben Spies (Yamaha).
The Aussie was able to make some changes in the RC213V setup and improved his pace on the second day of the test. His lagging issue was the chattering in the rear end. He feels that can be reduced with engine braking.
He also tested the 2012 Bridgestone tyres that had improved characteristics. The tyres were able to warm quickly and perform on wider temperature range. The grip has also improved on the slicks.
The Aussie rider added, “Performance seems quite good but we have a few problems with chatter. We find the front tyre gives us quite a lot of chatter and that is something we are trying to improve and the new bike helped with that slightly but we’d still
like to improve it more.”
While testing the RC213V, he tested few different chassis setups to sort better position for the engine and enhanced traction.
The first version he tested gave a better feel and balance to the bike. The second version was helpful to reduce the chatter significantly. The chassis were tested last time at Brno.
He feels that if a chassis that can help to reduce chatter with a better balance might hit the right direction for progress. A frame with different level of stiffness can also help to achieve the goal.
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