Michael Scott | March 17, 2018
MotoE Series Progres
With the first MotoE Cup race barely a year away, the 11 teams had a first meeting with the series director, ex-Michelin chief Nicolas Goubert, on the eve of the Qatar GP; while one of the race-prepped Energica MotoE bikes was on hand for a first public demonstration lap on race day.
2018 Qatar MotoGP Saturday News
The rider was former GP winner Simon Crafar, doubling up with his new pit-lane-reporter duties for Dorna, and other riders will demonstrate the bike at forthcoming races.
But while original plans to use existing MotoGP and smaller-class riders have been dumped, it remains uncertain where the 18 riders for the forthcoming five-race series will come from, according to Tech 3 Racing boss Herve Poncharal.
The French team, currently fielding Zarco and rookie Syahrin in MotoGP, is one of 11 signed up for the series, along with LCR, Marc VDS, Pramac, Angel Nieto (Aspar), and Avintia, plus Moto2/3 teams Gresini, SKY VR46, Pons, Dynavolt Intact and SIC58.
“It was just a preliminary meeting, and one point was that the organisers would prefer to avoid older riders, so the series can develop young riders,” said Poncharal.
“For me, getting a young rider is difficult. The bikes are production-based, so quite heavy and quite hard to handle, not like Moto3.
“The rider’s profile is also quite important – getting more famous riders would help promote the series.”
The advent of silent racing has not been greeted with enthusiasm, but at the same time being seen to be green would also buy favour for everybody’s favourite petrol-driven screamers.
Further, as Poncharal pointed out, this would be the only major hybrid championship series, with electric and petrol machines on the same bill. “In cars, Formula 1 and Formula E are competing with one another.”
2018 Qatar MotoGP Saturday News
The revised Qatar schedule left some confusion and complaints, but also had some fans. The disadvantage was a huge temperature drop between afternoon and evening sessions; the biggest advantage one day less spent at a generally unpopular venue. Plus reduced risk of crashing, with earlier action finishing before the dew settles.
The opening round has been cut from four days to three, with practice starting soon after mid-day instead of in the cool of the late afternoon, and the racing also earlier: Moto3 to run in daylight at 4pm, Moto2 round sunset at 5:20 and MotoGP at 7pm. Last year all races were two hours later.
The timing was discussed at the riders’ Safety Commission meeting, with no conclusions drawn, but general agreement that while racing earlier was better, the first sessions of each day were basically meaningless.
As Ducati manager Davide Tardozzi said: “With the temperature so much higher there is no grip … lap times are at least one second slower.”
Marquez said, in his Friday press debriefing: “Sure, it’s not ideal. But anyway Qatar is a special weekend, with the night GP. So you can’t set the bike up in the afternoon at 15:00 for the race at 19:00. In reality, we have only two useful practices – FP2 and FP4. But we tested here three nights two weeks ago, so everyone knows the set-up and the tyres.”
Rossi said: “I prefer this system. Four days here are too long. The race start at 19:00 is also better than 21:00, because the asphalt temperature is higher and the track in better condition. The timing for FP1, FP3 and warm-up is not ideal, because it is still very hot. But we can live with that.”
2018 Qatar MotoGP Saturday News
Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro greeted the new-this-race evolution engine with enthusiasm, after promises of a boost in bottom-end power proved to be well-founded “It worked well all round,” he said. “It lets me ride with a style very close to my needs, whereas before I had to open the throttle with the bike still very much leaned over.”
One difficulty remained, however: qualifying – the Aprilia is still better at maintaining pace on worn tyres than setting a good lap on new tyres. He ended up 14th on the grid.