Notes on Grand Prix Zero

To be back in the paddock again, at a European track, with that first warming of spring sunshine on your back, the vibrancy of all the colours of new paint jobs and the unknown of the season ahead, was just fantastic.

I have been going to motorsport events all my life, starting off by wearing a pair of massive red ear defenders while trackside at Shelsley Walsh hill climb or a clubby Silverstone, but the anticipation for this new MotoGP season seems, for me at least, to have something particularly special about it.

Valentino Rossi was given a black eye last year as Nicky Hayden knocked him out with a right hand upper cut in the final minutes of the championship when the Italian thought he was on a cruise to the Awards presentation that night.

Rossi was the first to congratulate Hayden in Valencia, but once back at the Yamaha truck, he cracked open a beer, drew a couple of gasps on someone else's cigarette and put his feet up on the table. He had lost, but his plan was to do a bit of testing, then chill out for Christmas with his mates, then jump on the plane to Malaysia in late January and work work work to get that advantage early on in the season.

Once the TV Cameras were rolling in Jerez last Sunday afternoon, Rossi knew all the other riders would not be overly bothered about the BMW car prize on offer, but the importance of the stamp they could put on others' minds for the fortnight until the flag drops in Qatar for the first race. Never underestimate the power of mind over matter...

He's done that with a hell of a lap with which he was overjoyed; punching the air after an absolute track record, so quick it made the 990cc bikes look like dinosaurs in just one session. Incredible...

Valentino Rossi celebrates his fast time in the Jerez IRTA test © Yamaha

Rival Dani Pedrosa timed it - maybe lucked it - over the line with one second to go, but he completely missed the apex at the second corner and lost the majority of his time there. He clawed it back corner by corner only to still concede defeat come the line. Had he not hit that apex in Turn 2, it would have been a very tight call between Rossi and Pedrosa come the line.

But maybe it's better if Dani hadn't have won the car so that all the limelight is on Rossi for the time being, only for Pedrosa to leap up like a Cobra and woop them all in the desert. That's a very Alberto Puig way of managing his rider in the garage: Just-win-the-race....

World champion Nicky Hayden was hurting with the lack of track time due to the rain and then foggy conditions every morning, but he did reveal to autosport.com that HRC may well be bringing out a wider fairing at the first race in Qatar in order to stop too much drag from the air flow over his shoulders.

Nicky is slightly larger across his shoulders than many riders, so he is punished with sheer top speed on the tiny little Honda RCV212 V. Protestations from him in Malaysia may well have kicked the Japanese manufacturer into making another fairing, as an actual set of Hayden leathers was sent to the factory for a similarly sized person to get inside them before going into the wind tunnel. They must have something up their sleeve....

Other Honda riders, such as Marco Melandri, are asking for more power rather than a new fairing. "You cannot win the championship on a customer bike," Melandri said. He had an HRC testing contract last year, something I believe has continued in another form this year. Should Melandri be getting the same kit as Pedrosa and Hayden, then? Well, whatever are the details of his personal contract, there is a black-and-white difference in the sound of the exhaust note with Hayden's and Melandri's bikes. I shall be listening very closely to see if they are similar at a race.

Squeeze the Juice

Continuing on a Honda thread, Pete Benson, Hayden's crew chief, says that the new fuel regulations of just 21 litres - a litre less than 2006 - are no problem for HRC. Engineers have stated that this was a bigger problem than actually the whole 800cc regulations changing, while some teams are still doing long runs at the test in order to ensure there will be no embarrassing stoppages with a lap to go.

"Fuel is no issue at all," said the New Zealander. "It is far easy to make something slower than to try and make something faster, but this 800 suits Nicky very well. After four races or so it may very well all fall into place with our package."

Some believe that the Honda attack has been to start winter testing well within themselves, hence the comments from Hayden about the ECU dulling the feel of the throttle connection earlier in the year.

Hayden is not involved in mappings and widgets, instead he is a committed rider whose eyes really are the window of his mood and thoughts. When talking about riding 800s on the limits through the quick corners of testing, his eyes sparkled.

"I am really starting to enjoy riding the 800 more than the 990; you can ride the edge closer," the American said. "Sometimes the 990 on parts of the track you were just holding on, but with this (800) you can shift your weight around and do more. Through the Esses at Phillip Island (the Hayshed) you were kind of holding on (with the 990), but with this you can be really aggressive through there."

Nicky Hayden on the Honda RC212V at the Jerez IRTA test © Honda Pro Images

Hopkins sidelined? Not anymore...

John Hopkins' injuries from his Qatar test crash kept him off the bike, but he was present at the test for media duties and to help see the progress of the Rizla Suzuki squad. Right hand bandaged and still swollen, the American did have a nice word to say about any 'fitness test' or similar he may have before Round One: "I'm racing whatever they say...!"

Rossi's Yellow is now Blue

I had a long chat to Lin Jarvis of Yamaha on Saturday evening, something that is always a pleasure. He was very proud of his forthcoming new sponsor announcement, but was a very 'PC' about what he could say about the launch date.

We now know the launch date is going to be next Monday in Italy for the new colour scheme for Rossi and Yamaha, but the trucks were freshly painted in a mid metallic blue, and a token Yamaha 'works' colour scheme stuck on.

Nothing that four blokes and a couple of hair-driers could not remove before the first European race back here in Europe, I mentioned to Jarvis. He laughed, but soon added: "The deal came about quite late in the day, so we had many things to do before. That's why we're a little bit behind."

And Fiat? "They sound like a good successful company, Toby. Maybe I should give them a call..."

250 Super Star

I am interested, but not surprised, to see that Alvaro Bautista was quickest after the first day of testing on Wednesday this week. The guy pulverised the opposition in 125 last year, only twice off the podium in 16 races...and even then he was 4th. His figures from last year's 125 championship were Rossi-beating, so if you are a betting person, I'd get in quick before the bookies twig.

By next week, the bikes will be out on track in Qatar, and we will begin to see if last weekend's Jerez test was a prophecy, and misnomer, or the future of the 2007 season.