The 2006 World Champion Nicky Hayden is looking forward to this weekend’s seventh MotoGP contest of the season in Barcelona, but he has the all important Engine decision to make before he can make his way out there.
Tadayuki Okada had won his racing stripes for the Honda team in order to test their brand new pneumatic valve engine at Mugello. A relatively successful race for the HRC test rider, Okada, with the improved engine, means that the motor is now available for use by Hayden and teammate Dani Pedrosa in this weekend’s Gran Premi Cinzano de Catalunya.
Hayden has been enthusiastic about the development more than his colleague, Pedrosa, in the past. He has had more testing time on the new engine over winter mainly due to Pedrosa’s hand injury in January in Malaysia. But both riders were in agreement that it needed further work after they started the season with a new RC212V 2008 chassis and both the pneumatic valve and traditional spring valve engines available on race weekends.
One option the factory Honda pair may choose would be to have one new engine and one traditional spring valve engine available as of Friday. Meanwhile, given Pedrosa’s current strong level of competitiveness he may choose to stick with his current package until he is certain the new motor can improve his results, whereas Hayden may opt for a gamble on the updated machinery after his less than impressive start to the season.
The pneumatic valve engine has a 1000rpm higher rev ceiling than the current, conventional RC212V engine and therefore a better top-speed potential, but the riders need to be certain that it will work well with the rest of their race package.
Hayden is positive about the evolution of his 800cc prototype and comments, “The pneumatic engine is interesting, because for me the 2008 chassis works better with that engine, so hopefully it can be more than just a good engine for us. But we’ve got to check all the data before we make the decision.”
Assessing the challenge ahead of him this weekend, he stated, “I quite like the track. If I had to play a videogame it might not be the first I’d choose but it would be somewhere near the top. There are a lot of corners where you’re on the side of the tyres for a long time so edge grip is really important, especially on the right side. It’s also important to have a bike that steers well and finishes the corner.”