motomatters.com
I
t was a long interview but here are a few that peaked my interest.
Q: How is your front end feeling?
CS: Yes, at the moment the front feeling is perfect.
Q: You were fast almost from lap 4, you were right at the top of the time sheets. How much more is there to come, how much more potential do you think you can get out of this bike?
CS: The potential for me is the most exciting thing. This is the biggest point for us today was very exciting, there is so much more to come. Just getting comfortable with the bike and things like this. The fact that we didn't touch almost anything on the chassis, we just got the balance more or less a little bit better. We haven't try to do really anything with the bike, and just concentrating on one area at the time, trying to get it working better in that way.
And I heard I went fastest with those laps, but they weren't fast, they were slow laps. We took our time today, we got up to speed, sort of the way I wanted to. It's just trying to work out mapping and electronics, trying to get that understanding, and tomorrow maybe we work a little bit on chassis, things like that. But we just want to make sure that with the small amount of testing time we have to concentrate on one thing at the time, and make sure we get that right before moving on to the next stage.
Q: You think there is three quarters of a second potential, which is the gap to Jorge?
CS: Heck, yeah!
Q: Can you tell this is an easy bike?
CS: To run the speeds we're doing, the lap times we are doing, no bike is really easy. But for sure I'm very happy and it's many things of what I expected before I rode this bike, from racing with them, and competing with them over these years.
Q: Dani has said that four riders are too many riders for one team. Do you think this will be a problem?
CS: Three pilots, with Simoncelli in in different colors, in a different team. Honestly, as far as I can see, we all have the same amount of mechanics, so I mean, nobody is getting less treatment than another, so for me there is nothing wrong with this. In the past, they did this, and it was fantastic, so, I think it can be a great thing. Of course, everybody always wants to feel like they're more important or more special than others, but if everybody is given the same treatment, then for me I don't see any problem with this.
Q: What is the feeling, Casey, as a factory rider in Honda after Mick Doohan and Wayne Gardner?
CS: Extremely proud, extremely proud. I'm just really happy to be riding this bike, and for next year I couldn't be any more excited. I'm going to do the best job I can in this off-season, because we have quite a lot of time off. I'll do everything I can for tomorrow and in the pre-season, and see what happens. I'm going to do the best job I can and try to make everyone proud.
Q: Casey, do you think you will have to do less work than Valentino in Ducati? You know Ducati and now you know Honda.
CS: I think both are race winning machines, that has been proven this season. Whether one has more work to do than another, I can't say. It is not up to me, you have to be the same rider is both situations. It is difficult to say this, but for sure I have a lot of work to do. In myself also to become comfortable with something different, but for sure Valentino has the same job ahead.
