No, Dani Pedrosa's affairs are not getting better. At the end of the second day spent in Austin, his situation even deteriorated. Not only did he not manage to make up the second that separates him from his teammate's lap on the same bike, but, in addition, he was passed by Crutchlow's private Honda. Something to be annoyed about.
Dani Pedrosa will reluctantly start the Grand Prix of the Americas from an eighth position on the starting grid which puts him 1.1s behind a favorite pair for the final victory. A difficult situation for the 30-year-old rider with 51 victories including 25 in MotoGP. But that's how it is. He is only a shadow of himself and this time it is not because of a case of recurrent compartment syndrome. On the other hand, the Auvergne symptom would explain why the Spaniard makes blood sausage. Because it is in the tire that a person's misfortune is found Pedrosa who sees himself as a victim of both change and his morphology.
Loris Baz knows, for MotoGP, you need a perfect physique. By this I mean that being too big and too heavy is as unenviable as being very small and featherweight. At the other end of the French evolution, there is a Pedrosa of 51 kilos. Not bad, a priori, for gaining speed on a motorcycle, but it is not enough to make a rear tire work well: “ my situation is due to my problems with the rear tire » regrets Pedrosa on speedweek. Usually not very verbose, the Iberian, this time, pours out: “ I test all types of settings. We work on balance and weight distribution. We need grip and we need to be more efficient in the corners. When I have more grip, I lose liveliness in the corners and vice versa. We haven't found the right balance ».
« I have a problem with the rear tire. Until then I was always fast with the rear tire. But the construction, rubber and tire pressures of the Michelin tires do not favor me. The tires are now much stiffer. The best riders can use the hard one, but not me because I don't heat it up. When I switch back to soft, it wears out quickly and I lose traction. I have to ride with the same pressure as the drivers who weigh between 80 and 85 kilos ».
However, Pedrosa does not overwhelm Michelin: “ I have to find a solution and the balance between the behavior of the bike and the work of the tires. I also have to adapt my driving style. There are questions about tire longevity, but I just have to start thinking about being faster. We try things but I never know if we're going to get better or if it's going to be worse ". Nothing is easy in MotoGP, even for a rider of Pedrosa's caliber.
