You are here

MotoGP, Lorenzo: "I'm no Einstein, but my tank works"

Jorge: "It won't help me win, but it's the first piece towards success. I don't want to revolutionize the Honda but make it more natural for me."

MotoGP: Lorenzo: "I'm no Einstein, but my tank works"

Share


The Honda is a puzzle for Lorenzo, a riddle to be solved in the shortest possible time. Jorge is putting all his efforts into it, and the new tank is the first piece that fit into the right place. Hard to say how much the picture will be completed, but the rider from Mallorca is confident.

"Einstein didn't invent the light bulb at 20," was his example, mixed up with a slight slip of the tongue, since the inventor was Edison. "I don't want to compare my work to his, but what I'm doing is an invention for motorcycling. I had already tried something similar in last year's tests in Valencia and Jerez, but it didn't work, and it gave me problems, so I had to give up on that solution. But I kept thinking about it and, on my trip to Japan in HRC, we found this solution."

One that satisfies him.

"It's a good start," he confirmed."But, in Ducati, the tank was the last piece I needed to win while, in Honda it's just the first. I know that if you look at my position today (13th) you might think it didn't help me much, but that's not true. I was able to ride the Honda using less energy and was more aggressive. I'm not in the top 10 just because I used a medium tire instead of a soft, so I have more chances to improve tomorrow."

Like Lorenzo said, this will not be the missing piece that will allow him to assert himself in the race or in qualifying, but it gave him the confidence of getting on the right track. Even if he doesn't want to go into detail.

"I don't want to say what it's for ," he said. "I can't stop you from seeing it, but I want to keep my technical secrets to myself. We're still in the races. No rider reveals what he's working on."

He won't go further than that and prefers to talk more in general about how he wants to transform the Honda.

"As Alberto Puig said, the heart of the bike should not be changed, like what was not done, neither to Yamaha nor Honda ," explained Jorge. "I just need to be able to take advantage of it, making it easier and more natural for me. Every bike is different, especially when entering corners, and the Honda will keep its speed."

But Lorenzo would like to make it more "his".

"You know I'm a perfectionist. This process will not end even when I can win or get a pole position," he continued. "There will always be something to improve."

Meanwhile, he's enjoying the first results.

"It's not the first Friday that I've been fast. I was also in Qatar and Le Mans, " he recalled. "But it was much better today than in Mugello. I never managed to be so aggressive in riding on the Honda. My gap from the first has always been less than a second, and I could have been closer with the soft rubber. I'll do it tomorrow."

Translated by Leila Myftija
__

Related articles