When approaching a Grand Prix weekend, there are many elements that are useful to have in mind, including old records, races from the previous year or the physical characteristics of the circuit.
To find out a little more about this last point, and go a little further than the number of turns or the length of the straight line, we wanted to interview professionals in order to try to find out the important elements that an experience of several decades allows them to bear directly in mind when arriving at a circuit.
Guy Coulon, the wizard of the Tech3 team, who was kind enough to answer our questions for the first circuits of the season, discusses Termas de Rio Hondo here.
Guy Coulon: “Despite a very recent coating, we saw that the grip was not excellent and this created a heating phenomenon. As we don't have much grip, we tend to use soft tires; they slip less but wear out more quickly and, at the end of the race, you could possibly be handicapped.
And if you take the hard one, it slips more so it risks wearing out faster than the soft one.
The choices are therefore complicated and are sometimes decided based on where we are in relation to our direct opponents, as well as based on the strong point of your bike that day. This is what will determine the choice of tire.
Last year, actually everyone was right; whether for hard or soft. Well, Rossi wins with a tough one but Marquez could, at worst, have finished 2nd.
Both solutions weren't valid for everyone, but depending on how your bike was and how your rider works, it could give roughly the same result.
It’s a circuit that goes quickly. There are entrances to curves, especially in the return part, where there is a bit of relief and where you don't see much, so you need drivers who "want to go there".
And you have a finish, especially when you are in a group, which is spectacular, in particular with this right which turns for a long time and which is quite tight, then this break to the left just before the finish line, which was worth the pass of arms between Andrea Iannone and cal Crutchlow, last year, for third place.
This is sometimes a little less true in MotoGP, but in Moto2 and Moto3, if it happens in a group, it's a critical place where the whole race can easily be called into question. »
Does this mean that you are particularly preparing for this last turn?
“We obviously talk about it before, with the drivers, so that they don't forget this aspect on the last lap if they are in a group. Try to see how others behave and do the best you can. If you get to 4 or 5, it could be very complicated.
This is one of the specificities of this circuit. »
