WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team Leaves Barcelona with New Insights

06-06-2022

WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team Leaves Barcelona with New Insights

Andrea Dovizioso and Darryn Binder continued to work on their Yamaha YZR-M1’s during the official MotoGP test today.

Following the Italian and the Catalan Grand Prix, the entire MotoGP paddock still didn’t rest, but used Monday after the ninth round at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for a second post-race test. Like throughout the weekend, conditions have been sunny and heating up quickly from the morning.

With a rather disappointing race in his mind, Andrea Dovizioso returned to action today and left Barcelona optimistic. The Italian tried several different parts and new settings in order to gain some small differences. He did a total of 56 laps throughout Monday and together with his experienced crew found some slight improvements compared to the race weekend.

On the other side of the WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team garage, Darryn Binder mainly focused on playing around with different settings in order to get more used to his Yamaha YZR-M1 machine. The MotoGP rookie suffered a small crash after lunch break, but had already gained some more knowledge in the morning. He did a total of 49 laps.

Now the WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP crew gets a short but well-deserved rest ahead of another double header in Germany and the Netherlands, starting at Sachsenring in less than two weeks’ time.

Andrea Dovizioso

WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team

“It’s always good to do a test after the race weekend. It’s difficult, because everybody is tired after the race, but I think the morning is the right moment to test. In the afternoon, the grip increases a lot and is completely different than at the race weekend. We didn’t try anything crazy, but I tried the material that the factory team got, the swing arm, the fairing and I felt a bit better with the swing arm. Let’s see if I will have it for the next round. We also tried a different position on the bike and it was a bit better. I was able to play a bit more on the braking, which was positive. We also tried a different maps, small things, but this is what we can do and it was quite good.”

Darryn Binder

WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Racing Team

“Today was pretty good. We started off this morning, just trying a couple of different things to make me feel a bit more comfortable on the bike. I found some small improvements, that I was able to be a bit more consistent with my lap times. Overall, I felt happy with the bike. Just after lunch, I had a small crash, which was an unfortunate end to finish a test. I did some laps afterwards, but basically, that was the end of it. In general, I feel like we are heading in the right direction with the bike setup. Lap by lap I get more comfortable and more confident on the bike. I’m still looking to improve on the soft tyre, but unfortunately, today when it came to the time to use the soft, I think the conditions weren’t really too great, it was really hot, so we never used it. But otherwise, I’m happy with how things went.”

Wilco Zeelenberg

WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Racing Team, Team Manager

“It was an eventful day; the sun was out and it was very hot. After a race weekend like this, there’s always things to try, to compare, especially the things you don’t have time to do during the race weekend. There’s always a bit more grip on the track on Monday, which is a fact you always have to keep in mind. Our guys tried many small things, but mainly reconfirmed things we already knew and also tested some new things that has been a surprise. In general, it was a good test. We didn’t do a too crazy number of laps, because the temperature has been very high, so at a certain stage, the track was very hot. Overall, we made some steps.”