Mystery continues to surround the future of Kawasaki's MotoGP project, which looked dead and buried when Kawasaki Heavy Industries announced a 'suspension of its factory MotoGP activities' from 2009.
But with development of the all-new 2009 ZX-RR well advanced, contracts in place with riders Marco Melandri and John Hopkins - and warnings from Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta that Kawasaki must honour its contract to race this year – an agreement to place the green machines with a privateer outfit, probably funded by Kawasaki and Dorna, look ever more likely.
The Eastern Creek test provided the first concrete proof that the ZX-RRs may race on and confirmation that Kawasaki test and development riders Olivier Jacque and Tamaki Serizawa will now head for a second test at Phillip Island indicate that some sort of deal is still being worked on behind the scenes.
Under such delicate circumstances, it was extremely unlikely that Jacque would give a depressing assessment of the 2009 ZX-RR's track debut at Eastern Creek, whatever happened, although in fairness to the former 250cc world champion he avoided making any grand claims.
"Well it is the first shakedown so everything is brand new. We have a new engine and a new chassis. It takes time to set up all these things correctly but the first impression is quite positive," he told the official MotoGP website. "The new chassis gives more feedback on the front end which was a problem last season. We have been looking closely at that this winter and we now have lot more stability on the front which helps with turning. Of course there is still work to do though."
With Eastern Creek not on the grand prix calendar - Jacque had not ridden at the circuit for '14 or 15 years' - the pace of the new Kawasaki would have been difficult if not impossible to judge. But that will change during the next Phillip Island test, when Kawasaki will be returning to a track which hosts the Australian Grand Prix and where the team had tested in late November.
source:www.crash.ne
No comments:
Post a Comment