Q & A with Kenny Roberts Jr.

After making a great deal of progress last year as the team took their maiden MotoGP podium, and even challenge for a win in Portugal, Roberts Jr. is keen for more in 2007.

Autosport.com caught up with the American, who admits that sometimes he misses have a teammate.

Q. How has pre-season testing gone? Are the times representative of where you are at the moment?

Kenny Roberts: I have a lot of different roles. People see black and white at the end of the day. Chuck (Aksland), my Dad and the team understand what's going on, but once you're outside of it people say, 'ahh that didn't go so well', if you are not in the top five.

I don't really mind that, but when others may be going for lap times, I'm testing doing laps and laps and laps. I'm testing things for fuel, doing longer runs and things like that.

Q. What level are you at now compared to last season?

KR: Basically we were pretty close within the first few hours of testing initially. Last year it took us a while to get going and that was down to the chassis not being what it should have been until after China. But we surpassed all the expectations just before mid-season, and then we went on to finish sixth in the world.

Q. And how does the bike feel?

KR: There's nothing that the bike's doing strange or abnormal. I did a race run at the end of the Qatar test, but I couldn't really see well because the sun was going down. I was taking it cautiously through the last part of the circuit, but I was doing a high 1m 57-58s. It wasn't so bad with the tyre I had on.

Hayden tried the same tyre, but he came in after 15 laps and his was destroyed. Ours didn't look so great, but the time stayed there so I think we're not so far off. I would say that we're where we should be for where we are at for the moment.

I just need to get the bike to react a little faster. It doesn't seem stiff enough. However, tests at Jerez last week look to have helped in that department.

Q. You are now the third oldest rider on the grid. Do you approach a race weekend wisely, or do you just go hell for leather?

KR: The younger guys now are faster than I was at that age! I never got going until I was about 26. Their level of maturity that they have is very high.

I don't put so much emphasis on qualifying until we have a need to be right up the front to have a hole shot and to get away with the race.

We are just a one-rider team, without a big amount of spare parts. If I do something wrong or fall down or qualify badly, we don't have that offset of a teammate.

If I had a quick teammate then you'd have both taking a little more risk with one guy taking a little more risk because one could shine on the day. If we are too low key or too complacent during a weekend, then it looks bad.

When things are going well I qualify well, but I've got to be really careful to pick and choose my time to do that; when the bike's right and ride 100% and get on the front row, then that's what you are supposed to do.

There are times when you see guys in 15th who then leap onto the front row in one lap and then they go backwards in the race. Things like that don't help us. The basic situation is I have more to lose, and then the whole team doesn't benefit.