Kawasaki aim to prove doubters wrong

That is the view of the Japanese manufacturer's competition manager Michael Bartholemy, who is bullish about his team's expectations for the campaign ahead.

"Overall, our goal is to demonstrate that Kawasaki is serious about competing at the top level in MotoGP, and that by the end of this season I would hope that we can achieve Kawasaki's best results since entering MotoGP in 2003," said Bartholemy.

"At the end of last season we faced some criticism for our performances, and for some of the changes we were undertaking, but I'm sure that everyone will now see the team operating at a high level."

Kawasaki have undertaken a managerial revamp over the winter, with the company's MotoGP activities now part of a new organisation called Kawasaki Motors Racing and it being a full factory in-house operation.

And the team are confident that in riders Olivier Jacque and Randy de Puniet they have the perfect mixture or youth and experience.

"The selection of two French riders is not connected to any specific strategy, such as marketing or promotion, and some people might say it is better to have two riders from different countries," continued Bartholemy.

"With a new bike for the 2007 regulations we needed a rider to assist with both development and racing and Olivier Jacque has done some great work for us over the past two years as test rider. And Randy de Puniet was already signed on two year contract, so I think we have a good balance in our rider line-up."

Bartholemy is hopeful that de Puniet can build on his strong qualifying performances this year in the races.

"For sure Randy is one of the emerging young stars of MotoGP and he will benefit a great deal from what he learnt during his rookie season," he explained. "He had some bad luck with injuries, but his race performances were also not as consistent as they could have been.

"But, he showed that in qualifying he was fast, he just needs to convert that speed into some strong results and I have no doubt he will realise his potential this season."