Sepeda WSB lebih cepat dari sepeda MotoGP?

Pembalap senang membuktikan suatu hal. Ini kembali ke F ** K yang sangat penting! departemen di otak mereka saya sebutkan beberapa minggu yang lalu. Itulah sebabnya tes gabungan MotoGP / World Superbike bulan November di Jerez telah menjadi masalah besar bagi para pembalap WSB papan atas. Banyak pebalap World Superbike percaya bahwa bakat mereka diabaikan dan diremehkan karena mereka berlomba jauh dari pusat perhatian MotoGP. Dan mereka tidak salah. Pemirsa TV WSB kira-kira 10 persen dari MotoGP. Ini menjelaskan mengapa orang-orang top WSB menghabiskan sebagian waktu mereka di Jerez mengendarai batas luar untuk membuat 14 pembalap MotoGP yang hadir terlihat agak konyol. Juara Dua Kali Dunia Superbike Jonathan Rea adalah bintang pertunjukan dan terbang pulang dengan senyum lebar di wajahnya setelah melampaui setengah dari grid MotoGP (meskipun sebagian besar bagian belakang). Putaran 1m 38.721detik yang menakjubkan di pabriknya ZX-10R akan menempatkannya di puncak di Grand Prix Spanyol Mei lalu, unggul 0,015 detik dari Valentino Rossi, 0,137 detik di depan Jorge Lorenzo dan 0,170 detik di depan Marc Marquez. Alvaro Bautista adalah yang tercepat kedua pada tes pada Ducati Desmosedici GP16, hanya menyingkirkan mantan saingan 250 GP Chaz Davies di pabrik Ducati 1198 Panigale. Yang ketiga adalah Desmosedici lainnya, Loris Baz mengalahkan mantan rekan setim WSB Tom Sykes.

How is this possible? How can anyone on a trick road bike go faster around a racetrack than the three men presumed to be the world’s best on hand-crafted MotoGP prototypes?

Firstly, this is nothing new. In 2002 the late, great Steve Hislop bettered Valentino Rossi’s pole time at the British GP, making a BSB Ducati 996 faster than a factory Repsol Honda RC211V.

Here’s why such things can happen...

Racing is all about grip. And the more horsepower you have, the less power matters and more grip matters, because it’s all about getting that power to the ground. This becomes apparent if we compare lap times at actual MotoGP and WSB events at Jerez.

The WSB lap record (fastest race lap) stands at 1m 41.135sec, established by Rea in 2015. The MotoGP record stands at 1m 38.735sec, recorded by Lorenzo in the same year; which makes WSB 2.4 seconds slower than MotoGP.

In Jerez’s fastest MotoGP race (2015) and fastest WSB race (2016), the winning MotoGP pace was low 39sec to low 40sec, against WSB high 41sec to high 42sec; another two-second gap. Last season MotoGP’s advantage halved, winner Rossi’s race pace varying between low 40sec and low 41sec.

The gap shrank dramatically due to a change of tyres and subsequent reduced grip. At the 2016 Jerez GP Michelin supplied extra-hard rears, after Scott Redding had delaminated a tyre in Argentina. The Jerez tyre caused wheelspin, even in a straight-line in fifth gear. Hence the race was 31 seconds slower than the 2015 Jerez GP.

Track temperature also plays a part because Jerez offers much less grip in the heat, which is why winter testing times at the track are always impressive. At the 2016 Jerez GP track temperature was 40 degrees, compared to 35 degrees at WSB 2016 and 30 degrees at MotoGP 2015.