World Superbike Championship- Monza Preview
May 07, 2008
Yamaha Racing
The World Superbike Championship moves from the classic circuit of Assen to an even more historic one - Monza - for the fifth round of the series this Sunday, May 11. Built in 1922, as first a speed bowl and then a fast parkland circuit, Monza is the oldest permanent race circuit in Europe still in regular use. A combination of flat out straights, similarly quick corners, a variety of chicanes and intense braking areas make Monza a unique stop-off on the WSB trail, especially as its Italian parkland cousin Imola is no longer on the calendar.
For the Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team, Monza is their literal home base, with the Lesmo corners at the north of the track situated very close to the squad’s race workshops in Gerno di Lesmo. Team riders Noriyuki Haga and Troy Corser are proven winners at Monza, both in races and in Superpole, with Haga particularly keen to see lighting strike twice again at his team’s home round. Last year Haga took his YZF-R1 to a magnificent double win, reasserting himself as a serious title challenger before going on to finish two points from the title itself. After a sometimes difficult start to this year, Haga is currently sixth overall, with a win and a second place to his credit.
Top placed Yamaha rider is the vastly experienced Troy Corser, who is third in the championship after scoring three podiums so far. Corser won at Monza on a four-cylinder machine in 2005, and this weekend would be the perfect time for him to notch up his first race victory in Yamaha colours.
The team has tested at Monza in 2008, but their two day session was virtually washed out by torrential rain, and thus Monza will be something of a full re-start for them.
Haga understands that Monza is a track apart, and not only because of his double win in 2007. He stated “The Monza race is very special and important for us all. Last year was great. I set a super lap of 1.44’941 in Superpole and won both races. As you probably know by now our Yamaha Motor Italia base is very close to the Monza circuit, so many friends and fans come along to cheer me. My aim for Monza will be to repeat the same fantastic result as last year. The competition is even harder this year so my aim will be not so easy, but I will try to get as many points as possible.”
Corser, the record Superpole winner of all time, said. “We have had some small problems in the past races but as far as the season goes I would say we can mark ourselves as eight out of 10. Although I haven’t won a race yet I am still sort of up there in the championship standings, in third right now. My form is good and my motivation is still high and I just try as hard as I can to win races. I like Monza, there are many Yamaha supporters at Monza and it is our team’s home race. The track itself is different from all the others on the calendar. We need to have the bike set-up for hard braking after the long and fast straights and there will be a lot of slipstreaming involved. Overtaking options are limited around there, mainly on braking. It was really wet for our recent test there but we did do some traction control testing.”
Technically speaking - Monza according to Silvano Galbusera (Technical co-ordinator and crew chief for Noriyuki Haga)
“As we do for all the others tracks, we will prepare one bike using our 2007 race specifications and the other will be pretty close to what we ran in the previous race. So, one bike will be the Assen race bike, with harder suspension, and one will be set the same as last year’s Monza machine. Unfortunately, we had no real feedback from the Monza test we had last month because of the weather. The geometry, rake, trail and other chassis settings will start out the same as last year. It’s easy for us to start from the 2007 spec, because it seemed to work well for Nori last year.
“The main differences we have compared to 2007 are special engine parts, for top end power, some more options we have are rear suspension linkages and one alternative swingarm, which has different rigidity. Of course, at Monza the engine is very important, because the rider has to hold full throttle for a long time. A powerful engine is something you must have if you want to fight for the podium. During the Monza race weekend we’ll test some new engine parts that should help the riders to go faster than last year.
Monza has only a few corners, but all of them are very important. After each corner there is a long, long straight. In my opinion one of the most important is the Parabolica. Going in faster and keeping the speed up through the corner allows riders to score good lap-times. It can make the difference between a good high speed and a fantastic one at the end of the pit straight. For this, I think, we should work on the suspension and the bikes’ geometry in order to give our riders the possibility to be as fast as possible around this long corner.”
