Jeremy Burgess, the man beind behind great riders like Wayne Gardner, Mick Doohan, and Valentino Rossi has voiced his opinion about the one tire manufacturer rule for next year’s MotoGP season…just a little bit more loudly than before. Read more after the jump.
The Australian Crew Chief is usually quite reserved, this of course hasn’t stopped him from going on the record that he is against the one tire manufacturer format that MotoGP will implement in 2009. Burgess has stated before that this will be bad move for the premiere class championship series:
“To me it’s taking away the reason we go prototype racing, which is to improve bikes and technical partners and the engineering challenge which can make motorcycles better and safer in the future. It’s a disappointing decision given we are in prototype racing and we need a many technical contributors, so we can to differentiate ourselves from the World Superbike category.”
For his basis on this position, Burgess is also famous for proposing the theory that motorcycle racing is 80% man, 20% machine. In his view, letting a rider like Valentino Rossi on the same tires (presumably the better tire) as riders like Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa, will only allow Rossi to walk away from the competition that much more easily, making him all but uncatchable. Burgess argues that riders, who already have a hard time keeping the Italian in check, should look for any advantage they can against him, and in the 2008 season that was through the use of Bridgestone tires.
“If I was a rider out there now I wouldn’t want to be on the same stuff as Valentino Rossi. That’s a tough call…It was virtually a mono tyre several years ago without a regulation with Michelin in 500s and we saw some pretty uninteresting racing there with Mick (Doohan) clearing away and winning races. When it was Mick and Valentino in the past with everyone on the same brand, those guys did most of the winning, so nothing will change.”
Time will tell what the real affects are of MotoGP being on only Bridgestones, judging from this week’s tests in Jerez, Pedrosa and Stoner are having an easy enough time keeping Rossi in check.
MotoGP Official Test –Jerez: Official Times Day One
1. Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda – 1’39.525
2. Valentino Rossi – Fiat Yamaha – 1’40.135
3. Jorge Lorenzo – Fiat Yamaha – 1’41.163
4. Colin Edwards – Tech 3 Yamaha – 1’41.390
5. Alex De Angelis – San Carlo Honda Gresini – 1’41.468
6. James Toseland – Tech 3 Yamaha- 1’41.539
7. Andrea Dovizioso – Repsol Honda – 1’41.655
8. Toni Elias – San Carlo Honda Gresini – 1’41.679
9. Niccolo Canepa – Alice Team Ducati – 1’42.074
10. Nicky Hayden – Ducati Marlboro – 1’42.098
11. Mika Kallio – Alice Team Ducati – 1’42.837
12. Sete Gibernau – Onde 2000 Ducati – 1’42.943
13. Vittoriano Guareschi – Ducati – 1’43.642
14. Yuki Takahashi – Scot Racing Honda – 1’44.360
Source: MotoGP & MCN via twowheelsblog
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