Poncharal happy with Moto2 shakedown test

Tech3 boss delighted with initial response after first test of new Moto2 machine in France.

Hervé Poncharal was extremely satisfied with the on-track debut of the Moto2 prototype his Monster Tech3 team will race in next season’s inaugural World Championship, after a shakedown test in Ledenon earlier this week.

With French rider Florian Marino testing the bike in France, the Tech3 team had the opportunity to smooth any minor problems ahead of official rider Raffaele de Rosa’s first ride at the Valencia test next week.

“I’m very happy with this shakedown test,” Poncharal told motogp.com. “The rider has been pushing a bit and we could get his feedback, and he was really pleased. Florian says it is much closer to a Grand Prix 125cc bike than a 600cc production race bike because everything is much stiffer, the chassis is more rigid, but it’s a proper race bike and prototype.”

“We did the running in of the engine, but we couldn’t do too many laps because we had a faulty earth connection. We found out quite quickly, and we decided to do another day at a circuit nearby and that went really well. The weather was cold and dry so we could do quite a few laps without a single problem and try and work to understand how the chassis, suspension and everything else is working.”

The next step for the Tech3 team is the test at Valencia from December 9-10, where Poncharal is hoping to gain a clearer idea of the development of the bike.

“The purpose of the shakedown test was fulfilled; the bike is running perfectly well,” he continued. “Of course things will be very different at Valencia. We’ll have had one and a half days of testing when we arrive in Valencia and some of the other teams will have had a lot more track time. So for the first time we’ll compare with one another. However, not everyone will use the same engine so there could be quite a big difference in the engine department.”

“We want to compare ourselves to the other Moto2 teams and hear what Raffaele de Rosa is thinking about the bike after his first time on it. Hopefully he won’t need too much and the bike will be well prepared, but he could point out some weak points that we’ll need to modify for the next test. We almost have the second bike ready so the next test will be with both De Rosa and (Yuki) Takahashi.”

Poncharal is waiting to see what the results from Valencia show before making solid plans for further testing, adding, “There are a lot of dates that have been submitted to us at Albacete and other tracks, so the next test will be with both official riders. We just want to wait and see what happens in Valencia to decide if we need to test again very soon after that, or if we have time to prepare something with less stress and pressure for the next test. It won’t be before January 10.”