With energy drink Go&Fun continuing as title sponsor for a second season, the green and white livery is unchanged for 2014.
But there will be a new bike and new rider with Moto2 star Scott Redding signed up for Gresini’s new Open class Honda. Redding joins Alvaro Bautista, starting his third season on the team’s Factory class RC213V.
Redding arrives in MotoGP off the back of a breakthrough fourth season in Moto2, in which he claimed his first three wins and led the championship for much of the season.
The 21-year-old Englishman only lost the advantage to pre-season favourite – and fellow 2014 MotoGP rookie – Pol Espargaro when he fractured his arm at Phillip Island. Redding’s hopes of forcing a final round showdown ended when he was brought down in a first lap accident during his early Motegi comeback.
The Open class replaces the privateer ‘CRT’ category. Machinery is no longer subject to a claiming rule – but the technical advantages are even greater than before. Although the Open bikes will have to run the full control ECU system – Factory class entries can keep their own software – they will benefit from four litres of extra race fuel, more engine changes and potentially a softer rear tyre.
The Honda RCV1000R is a customer version of the title-winning RC213V machine, featuring steel rather than pneumatic valve actuation and a standard rather than seamless shift gearbox, to limit costs. The bike, sold rather than leased, produces ‘over 175KW’ (235hp) at 16,000rpm. Honda has claimed that the difference in lap time between the Factory and Open bike at its test track was only 0.3s – and dropped to 0.17s with the softer rear tyre.
During the debut of the Open machines at last November’s Valencia test – when Redding was still nursing his arm injury – the best of the Open bikes (Aleix Espargaro, FTR-Yamaha) was 1.3s from the top, with the top Honda of Aspar’s Nicky Hayden a further half a second back.
As well as Redding and Hayden, Hiroshi Aoyama (Aspar) and Karel Abraham (Cardion AB) will also be riding the Open Honda. Like his team-mate Bautista in the Factory class, Redding will be the only RCV1000R competitor running Showa rather than Ohlins suspension.
Former Suzuki rider Bautista took his first MotoGP pole and podiums with Gresini in 2012, but was unable to repeat those feats last season, when the 29-year-old Spaniard dropped one position to sixth in the standings. That was despite finishing in the top six at ten of the final eleven races.
Bautista and Redding will be on track during the opening 2014 pre-season test at Sepang next week.
Gresini finished runner-up in the MotoGP title chase from 2003-2005, with Sete Gibernau (twice) and then Marco Melandri. The team’s triumph with Toni Elias at Estoril in 2006 remains the most recent victory for a non-factory MotoGP rider.
As well as its MotoGP project, Gresini will continue to run teams in Moto2 and Moto3.
http://ift.tt/1fzJay3
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar